NABTAH Gold and Creamy Extra Long Grain Enriched Parboiled Rice “Sella Basmati“.

What is parboiled or Converted rice? Parboiling is a patented process, which changes the nutrients of the rice . After undergoing this process and proper milling, the rice obtains a light yellow or amber color. It cooks up fluffy and separate.

NABTAH Gold is available in Saudi market. While creamy for quality if you are looking for an inexpensive replacement to other brands of parboiled rice, just ask for NABTAH Gold and Creamy at your local grocer. Available in 45kg, 40kg (4X10kg) sizes in Blue and green jute bags.

Importance of rice

Agriculture is the backbone of India  economy, providing direct employment to about 70% of working people in the country. It forms the basis of many premier industries of India, including the textile, jute, and sugar industries. Agriculture contributes about 31% to GDP; about 25% of India's exports are agricultural products.

Rice is the staple food of 65% of the total population in India. It constitutes about 52% of the total food grain production and 55% of total cereal production.

Both food and nonfood crops are grown. Food grains consist of cereals such as rice, wheat, jowar, bajra, and maize as well as pulses. Food crops grow on nearly 70% of the gross sown area. Important nonfood crops are cotton, jute and tobacco.

India became self sufficient in rice in 1977. That was achieved through a combination of increasing the area under cultivation and increasing cropping intensity. With the adoption of modern varieties (MVs) in 1966, an average annual increase of 2% in rice yield has been attained. About 55% of the rice area was planted to MVs in 1985. Rough rice production has exceeded 100 million t annually since 1988; total production in 1994 was almost 120 million t, with an average yield of 2.6 t/ha. India regularly exports a small amount of high quality basmati (aromatic) rice. In 1995 India ex-ported nearly 4.2 million tons of rice in response to the large increase in demand in the world market.

Rice environments

Rice environments in India are extremely diverse. India has the largest area under rice in the world. Of the 42 million ha of harvested rice area, about 33% are rainfed lowland, 45% irrigated, 15% rainfed upland, and 7% flood-prone. In some areas, such as Punjab, Haryana, and Tamil Nadu, yields have increased by 55-98% in the past two decades. Much of these areas are irrigated with rice yields of 5-6 t/ha, due to higher input use. Farmers in these states have much higher per capita income than do the traditional rice-growing states of eastern India.

Production constraints

Since the major portion (55%) of the area under rice in India is rainfe, production is strongly tied to the distribution of rainfall. In some of the states, erratic rainfall leads to drought during the vegetative period, but later on the crop may be damaged by submergence due to high rainfall. In the eastern states, damage due to flash floods is quite high.

Other constraints relate to the land and soil. On the one hand, extreme soil acidity is a problem in southern and eastern India, whereas in northern India soil salinity and alkalinity is a problem. Nitrogen, P, and Zn deficiency is widespread.

Nearly all of the rained area suffers from the lack of infrastructure. Moreover, most farmers cannot afford the inputs necessary for maximum production.

Production opportunities

Much of India's agricultural growth, particularly in major cereals, can be traced to an agricultural strategy adopted in the late 1960s. The strategy included

• a package of inputs consisting of short-duration, high-yielding modern varieties, fertilizers, and improved agricultural practices in areas of assured water supply,
• timely credit, and
• announcing minimum price supports before planting.

To extend the production package to less favored areas, agro climatic zonal planning is applied, which should achieve more balanced regional growth. India has been divided into 15 agro climatic regions based on homogeneity in rainfall, temperature, soil, topography, and water resources.

Strategic research to increase the productivity of rice is being done in collaboration with the International Fund for Agricultural Development and IRRI in six states in eastern India which account for two-thirds of total rice area, mostly under rained ecosystems.