 Did you know that...
 98 per cent of
the world’s rice is grown in Asia.
91 per
cent of the world’s rice is eaten in Asia.
Rice is
the staple food of three of the world's four most populous nations: China, India and
Indonesia. That’s 2.5 billion people!
More
than 1 billion people depend on rice for their livelihood. Most of these farmers are in
Asia.
In
Asia, more than 2 billion people obtain 60-70% of their caloric intake from rice and its
products.
The
Himalayas are the cradle for modern rice. Rice cultivation spread from the Indian
subcontinent.And yet...
The
complete rice genome map is with Myriad Genetics, an American company and Syngenta of
Switzerland
The
patent for Golden rice, enriched with beta-carotene, could help reduce Vitamin A
deficiency, a leading cause of blindness in Asian children, is with the West
l The patent for India’s Basmati
is with RiceTec, an American company
US is one of
the biggest exporters of rice
Asian
rice is sold at very low rates in the international market, while Western rice is priced
much higher
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"Uhhh... ummmm...
Genes? Patents? What’s the need? But haven’t our people been using these
varieties for centuries? Wait...
Drat! we just lost another patent
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 I hear rice
originated in Himalayas. It went from India to rest of world. We have been growing Basmati
for centuries. But I hear that in future, we may have to pay big dollars to grow and
export our own rice. Can this be?
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 "Dal-chawal,
biryani, dosa, idli, kheer... yum! Rice is our present. Rice is our History. It is our
Sociology, Tradition and Lifeline. In India, no ritual is complete without using akshata
(rice coloured with haldi)"
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 "Rice
cultivation is long, laborious. Seed is sown somewhere, transplanted elsewhere. I can do 1
acre in 3 days. Ploughing, manuring, flooding, weeding, harvesting, is all done by
hand."
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"Rice = 
"Basmati.
Kasmati. Texmati. You name it.We stock it. We deliver it. We export it.
"Rice? Ya, you
get it fried in those fancy Chinese restaurants. By the way, Economy is greater than
History, Sociology and Tradition put together. We 
"Growing rice is cool. Plough the field with a tractor. Flood it. Drop
soaked rice seeds from a plane. It takes us one day in man-hours to grow a tonne of paddy.
(It takes Asia 100 days to do the same!)
