Rice · Rice · Short entry

Basmati 370

The pure-line Basmati selected at the Rice Farm of Kala Shah Kaku in Punjab and approved in 1933 — the traditional variety from which later Basmati breeding descends.

Basmati 370 — editorial grain study, polished, not to scale. Appearance alone does not establish variety or protected origin.

Accession no. 370

In 1926 the Punjab Department of Agriculture set up a rice breeding station at Kala Shah Kaku, in Sheikhupura district of present-day Pakistan. Of the hundreds of landrace lines collected and compared there, accession no. 370 — collected at Kaulo Tarar in Hafizabad district — stood out for yield and grain quality, aroma included. Farmers knew it as "Farmi Basmati" because it came from the Rice Farm; on 5 April 1933 it was approved as Basmati 370.

Pakistan's Basmati specification calls it the "mother" of the Basmati varieties developed since, and Indian breeders also used it: Pusa Basmati 1121 has Basmati 370 in its pedigree. It remained the most popular export variety until the late 1980s.

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