Did you even know that the pot of Indian basmati rice is cooking up a major stink all over the world?

Since January, Norway, Sweden, England and Finland have rejected at least 30 containers of basmati. Many European countries have also tested premium variety basmati rice imported from India and found traces of cancer causing fungicide tricyclazole. Following this, Saudi Arabia, the largest importer of basmati rice from India has also begun stringent testing and many consignments have been rejected.

All this cancer causing rice comes from Punjab – mainly Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Gurdaspur, Ferozpur and Pathankot. Those in the industry are now taking measures to stop use of fungicide but it will impact the farmers for sure.

Basmati rice growers in Jammu & Kashmir don’t use tricyclazole and due to this, Punjab farmers are turning to J&K farmers for procurement of basmati; exporters recently bought 25,000 tonne, paying J&K farmers more.

Well, those abroad are running all these tests to protect their citizens. What are we doing?