What are the ideal climatic conditions for growing rice?
A.R.J: We have one of the best lands of the world in Punjab for Basmati. But I must pay salute to our growers in Sindh who without any modern farm machinery, have grown 300,0000 tons of Basmati rice in Sindh last year and this year the figure is expected to reach 500,000 tons. The quality is also very good. It is aromatic rice & fetching very good price. Sindh’s rice is matured; it is good in cooking within three to four months. Now the season of rice starts from November and the good quality rice of Punjab takes six month for maturity. What we are lacking, is we are not marketing our products. The commercial secretaries all over the world are political appointees; they are not supportive at all. Even when I was the acting chairman of Pakistan Rice Board, I had to wait a long to meet them for the good. So you can imagine the situation that how difficult it could be for normal exporters to meet these commercial secretaries. On the other side Indian commercial secretaries treat their exp
