Indian rice is famous all over the world. India boasts the largest rice harvesting area in the world. Rice is the staple food of people in many Indian states especially in the Southern states. It remains the staple food of 65% of the total population of the country. Though there are more than 600 varieties of rice in India, basmati rice is the largely cultivated type. It is cultivated in West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

20% of all world rice production comes from India. Since 1950 the rice production has increased 350% though the number of hectares has increased only 40%. This means that the yields per hectare have increased largely due to modern methods of rice cultivation. There are many methods of Indian rice cultivation though the traditional methods of harvesting are still used. The natural manure such as cow dung is widely used. Clayey loam soil is good for rice cultivation. The soil has to be wet and watery during the growing period. For retaining water low mud walls are erected in the rice fields.

In a 100 grams of Indian basmati rice the nutrition present are 9 grams of protein, 77.4 grams of carbohydrates, 375 calories of energy, 6 milligrams of calcium, 50 milligrams of phosphorous, 2 milligrams of iron, one gram of dietary fibre and zero fat. Organic rice, parboiled rice, raw rice, basmati rice, basmati cutting, ponni rice, rajabogam rice, BT rice, Karnataka ponni, IR 20, IR 50, long grain rice, silky rice and long grain parboiled rice are some of the popular varieties of Indian rice cultivated.

There are three rice growing seasons, the first season starts from March to May and lasts till June to October and the second season starts from June to October and lasts till November to February and the third rabi season starts from November to February and lasts till March to June. In some parts of India like West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and Assam, two harvests of rice are made every year. They are called as winter crop and summer crop. In summer season the monsoon winds bring rainfall facilitating the rice cultivation. The winter crop is a long duration crop. In some places like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh autumn rice is cultivated.

The rice plant grows well in the deltas of River Cauvery, River Krishna, River Godavari and River Mahanadi. If irrigated well rice can grow well even in the hottest climate of Punjab and Haryana. Organic Indian rice is mainly for the purpose of export and they get good price in the international market.

There are many easy recipes made with Indian rice. Biriyani, pulav, vegetable pilaf, mint pilaf, nariyal bath, thayir sadham, sambar sadham and bisi bhela bath are some of the recipes prepared with Indian rice. While basmati rice is used mostly in North India, ponni rice or IR 20 is used in the south. Special type of rice called Kallamuthan rice is used for preparing dough for making idli, dosa and paniyarams. White rice is eaten with a variety of gravies. One parts of the rice is boiled with two parts of water to get white boiled rice. Indian rice is inexpensive and tasty.

Article Posted By : Sumazla  On December 23, 2011lView All Articles

Suhaina Mazhar is a freelance content writer and blogger with five years experience in content writing. http://sumazla.blogspot.com is her blog.

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Keywords :
Indian Rice , basmati rice , ponni rice