Basmati Rice: Fair Price for Rice ! By Louie Bailie 4C

1. Basmati Rice: Fair Price for Rice! By Louie Bailie 4C All Pictures taken by R.Bailie

2. The rice story! My Dad works as a director for Tilda – a company that sells Basmati rice around the world. He helped me tell the story of fair price for rice! • From June to November farmers grow Basmati. • The work starts with the preparing seeds and sowing. • After a few weeks the Basmati saplings are transplanted by hand from the nursery slopes to the main paddy field. • To this day Basmati is harvested by hand and threshed to ensure that none of the grains are lost. • After harvesting, the paddy crop is then taken to the local agricultural market called the “mandi” to be sold at auction to the highest bidder. • The rice from the field must be dried to prepare it for milling to remove the outer bran layers.

3. Basmati Rice Market and Fair Pricing • In India farms are small and usually run by a family • Large multi-national companies could try to exploit the farmer and not give a fair price for the rice • But the farmer is protected by an open market regulated by the government • Tilda know the names of over 40,000 farmers and buys rice from up to 10,000 different farmers each year. • Tilda does not belong to the fair trade association as the practices in-place already ensures the farmer’s interest is looked after.

4. A fair price for farmers • To ensure a sustainable future for Basmati means that Basmati farmers receive a good price for their rice. • If farmers don’t get a fair price, they may switch to other types of rice or grow different crops altogether. • All Basmati is purchased at open, transparent auction. • The farmer is not obliged to accept the final hammer price and can put the Basmati up for auction again. • This means that farmers always receive a good return for their crop.

5. Paddy Fields and threshing rice to separate the rice from the plant Farmers in Haryana in the North West of India grow Basmati Rice. Basmati only grows in the foothills of the Himalaya's

6. The Mandi, or market, is where the farmers bring their rice to sell The Government do not allow ‘contract farming’ so farms are small family affairs. To avoid farmers being exploited an open market is used to sell rice Here a farmer brings his rice to the market, the rice arrives loose meaning it has not been packed into sacks. The trailer in the background shows the rice once it has been bought

7. The rice is heaped ready for the auction to take place! A government official is present at the auction to make sure it is fair. Also if the farmer does not like the price he is offered he can ‘walk away’ and sell another day

8. Once the rice is bought, it is put into sacks and taken to the mill. The mill must dry the rice first, ready to be cleaned. It will then be shipped and milled again to remove the bran and then packed ready for the shops!