The farmers in Punjab, who had doubled the area for cultivation of the superior variety of Paddy PUSA 1121, are really annoyed from the Central Govt. and are opposing its decision to exclude the PUSA 1121 from Basmati category.

This superior quality of paddy had returned with high incentives last year for the farmers, and with this hope that the Central Government would include PUSA 1121 under the category of Basmati; the farmers had increased the land for its cultivation. But Central government has marked PUSA 1121, a long grained paddy, as a non-basmati variety and the farmers are opposing this decision as it will bring down their margins.

Even the decision of not including PUSA 1121, has been said to be anti-farmer by the president of the Bharti Kisan Union (Rajewal), Balbir Singh Rajewal.

On September 16, Rajewal, would meet the Prime Minister and submit a memorandum. He aims at pursuing the Govt. to include PUSA 1121, RH 10 and shrabati varieties as basmati and fix a separate minimum support price (MSP) for them. The decision has also been opposed by the All-India Rice Exporters Association. The normal variety of rice is sold at 1000 per quintal whereas the basmati variety is sold Rs 3500 per quintal. Last year the PUSA 1121 was sold at Rs 2500 per quintal.

This year the area of cultivation is to be increased by 50,000-70,000 hectares, for cultivation of paddy in Punjab against last year. Initially, PUSA 1121 was sowed 5% of the total plantation but due to high demand in middle-east this year, the plantation had to be increased to 15% of total paddy plantation.

This exclusive variety is really aromatic and is about 120 cm tall. It has extra long slender grains, with the yield of 13.7 quintals per year. Among all other varieties PUSA 1121, has the longest length cooked in Punjab.