Priyanshu Mohanty 
A point of recognition shines above the Indian rice business amidst the turbulent waters of international trade prohibitions. As the World Rice Conference came to an end recently in Cebu, Philippines, Indian rice finally made it to the top of the World’s Best Rice rankings. The conference hallways reverberated with a monumental recognition: the World Rice Industry Service Award was given to Dr. Samarendu Mohanty, a distinguished Indian scientist. This success proves the everlasting determination and relentless dedication of Indian rice exporters, even in the face of financial pressures and limitations.
Asian farmers have improved livelihoods and promoted sustainable farming practises, which has not only improved the global rice business but also touched the lives of countless people. As the world’s best rice contest saw Vietnam, Cambodia, and India advance to the final three, an important statement reverberated through the conference rooms. The World Rice Conference is scheduled to take place in India for the first time in April 2024, thanks to plans published by the Rice Traders. This presents an excellent chance for the Indian rice sector to present its rich history and variety to a worldwide audience.
With all of its challenges and achievements, the Indian rice sector is at a turning point that should be celebrated as well as a clear cry for fair acknowledgment.
Today when the Indian rice exports have prohibitions / restrictions and rice trade is going through lot of turbulence this is welcome news from the recently concluded World Rice Conference at Cebu, Philippines. Indian rice comes in top three of the World’s Best Rice and Indian scientist receives the Industry Award at the World Rice Conference in Cebu, Philippines Indian scientist and Indian rice shine at the recently held “World Rice Conference” in Cebu, Philippines where nearly 600 rice traders and other supply chain actors from around the world participated.
Dr. Samarendu Mohanty was awarded the World Rice Industry Service Award for his immense contributions to the world rice industry. He is a former Principal Scientist and Program Leader at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). He has been tirelessly working with govt. officials from rice growing countries and the world rice industry for smooth functioning of the market. He has also been working with Asian farmers in improving their livelihood through technology adoption, seed system development and market linkages. His current focus is to sustainably intensify rice-potato cropping system through the introduction and scaling up of low-cost apical rooted cutting potato seed production technology.
“The Rice Trader strongly believes in giving recognition for those that work to enhance the global industry and give back to our international community. Dr. Mohanty exemplifies these traits, and we noted the many times he has given his own personal time to server the industry on a multitude of levels” stated Jeremy Zwinger, the President of The Rice Trader. For the WORLD’s BEST RICE Contest, there were multiple samples from more than 10 countries including Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, India, Pakistan and the Philippines. The top three finalists were India, Cambodia and Vietnam with India for the first time in the top three
The Rice Traders announced their intention of organizing the World Rice Conference for the first time in India in April 2024. This will be an excellent opportunity for the Indian rice industry to showcase Indian rice including traditional aromatic varieties grown in different parts of India to the global rice community.
The exact dates and the location will be announced very soon. On the exports front there are huge challenges for the millers/exporters to run their business and meet ends of the business requirement like paying loans to banks, salaries to thousands of employees and so on.
New business on some foreign government’s requests are being routed through NCEL which is under Ministry of Cooperation. When there was normal business then India reached the level of 42% market share of world rice trade. This was a great achievement through lot of hard work done by hundreds of exporters who travelled to all these places and convinced importers in those 160 countries where our rice has been exported since recent times. A more active role is to be defined for them to get natural justice for the hard work they have put in over the decades and generations.
