In the sun-drenched fields of India’s Basmati belt, where golden grains sway under vast skies, 63-year-old Dr Ashok Kumar Singh — recently named for the Padma Shri, the Government of India’s prestigious civilian award — carries a title he wears with quiet humility: the “Basmati King.”
Farmers do not crown him with jewels, but with stories of transformed lives — children studying in top schools, families thriving with dignity, and fields yielding rice that fetches billions in exports.
His varieties blanket 2.5 million hectares across the GI-tagged Basmati zone, producing 10 million tonnes of milled rice annually. Of this, six million tonnes are exported, earning $6 billion (Rs 51,000 crore) — nearly 12% of India’s agri-export foreign exchange — while putting smiles on millions of farmers’ faces.
For over three decades at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), Dr Singh dedicated himself to Basmati rice breeding, choosing service at home over lucrative opportunities abroad. His work is more than science — it represents dignity for millions, enabling education, healthcare, and everyday joy.
Pusa Basmati 1401, the most popular variety among farmers.
Farmers regard him as family, sharing both sorrows and celebrations.
“I feel humble,” reflects the distinguished plant breeder and former Director of ICAR-IARI, New Delhi, who retired in June 2024. Today, he remains deeply engaged in agricultural discourse as an Emeritus Scientist at ICAR.
A village boy’s unyielding call
Born in Barahat village in Ghazipur district, Uttar Pradesh, to peasant roots, Singh’s story echoes the soil’s grit. His father, Late Shri Kedar Nath Singh, an innovator with only a seventh-grade education, believed deeply that education uplifts society.
In the 1970s, young Ashok witnessed bullocks trampling wheat heaps, grains emerging intact from dung that impoverished villagers washed repeatedly to make chapatis — a visceral memory of inefficiency and hunger.
“All this had an early imprint on my mind to become an agricultural scientist,” Singh recalls.
Cycling 25 km daily to attend agricultural high school and intermediate college, he balanced studies with farm chores: tilling fields, feeding livestock, milking cows and buffaloes, and cleaning sheds.
Rice cast its spell during an MSc seminar on hybrids at BHU. A lifelong rice-eater with a preference for premium grains,
Singh was drawn to its adaptability.
He secured fourth rank in the UP Board examinations.
Bachelor’s and master’s degrees at BHU followed, then a PhD at IARI under Prof EA Siddiq — a student of Bharat Ratna Prof MS Swaminathan, who envisioned merging traditional Basmati quality with higher yields. Later, he headed IARI as Vice Chancellor and Director completed a poetic full circle.
Hostel, lab, and rice spell
“Ashok was highly studious and focused, rarely joining us in co-curricular activities,” recalls his IARI batchmate Dr Sanjay Jambhulkar, a scientist who recently superannuated from Bhabha Atomic Research Centre’s Nuclear Agriculture Division.
“His life revolved around the hostel and the lab,” Jambhulkar adds.
Rice cast its spell during an MSc seminar on hybrids at BHU. A lifelong rice-eater with a preference for premium grains, Singh was drawn to its adaptability — thriving from Kuttanad’s two metres below sea level to Jammu & Kashmir’s 2,000 metres above, surviving droughts, deep water, and saline soils.
“Rice is life,” Singh declares — from a child’s annaprasan to funeral sands.
Joining Siddiq’s programme in 1986 as a PhD student and later as a scientist in 1994, Singh built on Pusa Basmati 1 (1989, the world’s first semi-dwarf Basmati developed by Padma Shri Prof EA Siddiq and Dr VP Singh) and Pusa Basmati 1121 (developed by Padma Shri Dr VP Singh, with Singh as associate breeder).
The essence of basmati
Basmati rice stands apart as the world’s most prized aromatic grain, revered for its sensory appeal and culinary versatility. Its name derives from the Sanskrit “vasmati,” meaning fragrant, reflecting the nutty, popcorn-like aroma released during cooking due to naturally occurring 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline compounds.
Slender and elongated when raw (6.5–7.5 mm), the grains expand dramatically to 12–14 mm upon cooking — doubling in length without breaking or becoming sticky — yielding fluffy, separate kernels with a tender yet firm mouthfeel, ideal for biryanis and festive dishes.
Bird’s eyeview of lush Basmati fields on Panipat
Grown exclusively in the Himalayan foothills of the Indo-Gangetic plains, Basmati benefits from cool nights, intense sunlight, and mineral-rich alluvial soils. Its landrace origins trace back to India’s Basmati belt, protected under GI tags since 2003, spanning Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu & Kashmir.
With intermediate amylose content (22–25%), Basmati cooks dry yet succulent, absorbing spices deeply while retaining sweetness and volume expansion up to 300% — traits Dr Singh’s varieties have amplified without compromise, transforming it from an elite delicacy into an everyday lifeline for millions.
Roots in the revolution: From landraces to exports
Singh inherited Swaminathan’s 1966 IARI legacy, when Basmati landraces from Dehradun and Karnal were characterised for aroma, elongation, and slender grains. Karnal Local, with superior length over Basmati 370 and Taraori Basmati, became the quality benchmark by 1992.
Shuttle breeding at Aduthurai’s off-season nursery accelerated breeding cycles. Pusa Basmati 1 revolutionised exports — from Rs 8,650 million (1994–95) to Rs 43,450 million (2007–08) — contributing 60% of export value.
Traditional Basmati 370, a tall and photoperiod-sensitive landrace, yielded only 9–10 quintals per acre and required over 150 days to mature. In contrast, Pusa Basmati 1121, semi-dwarf and photo-insensitive, yields 19–20 quintals per acre and matures in about 140 days.
Covering nearly 70% of India’s Basmati area (43 lakh hectares), it contributes over 90% of exports, worth Rs 25,053 crore (2021–22), stabilising rural economies across North Indian states.
India’s agricultural priorities emphasise food security, climate-resilient crops, rural prosperity, and agri-exports, as seen in ICAR strategies and visions like “Indian Agriculture by 2047.”
Singh extended this legacy by leading Pusa Basmati 1509 and 1692 (120-day maturity), enabling crop rotations with potato, pea, maize, and sunflower across 0.7 million hectares. Molecular breeding under his leadership produced Pusa Basmati 1718, an improved 1121 with bacterial blight resistance, now grown on 0.4 million hectares.
Newer releases — Pusa Basmati 1728, 1847, 1885, and 1886 — stack resistance to blight and blast. His top trio were 1509 (earliness), 1885 (dual resistance on a 1121 base), and 1985 (herbicide-tolerant for direct-seeded rice).
India’s agricultural priorities emphasise food security, climate-resilient crops, rural prosperity, and agri-exports, as seen in ICAR strategies and visions like “Indian Agriculture by 2047.”
Dr. Singh’s high-yielding, export-oriented Basmati lines support these by improving livelihoods for millions of farmers and contributing to economic surplus, recently hitting record highs in 2024-25. His innovations in marker-assisted breeding also aid sustainability amid climate challenges.
Molecular whispers: Precision’s turning point
A brief stint as a mustard breeder at the Tata Energy Research Institute exposed Singh to molecular biology under mentors like Prof Deepak Pental. At IARI, collaborations with Dr Trilochan Mohapatra, Dr NK Singh, and Dr TR Sharma catalysed his adoption of marker-assisted selection (MAS).
Without a lab initially, his students worked across facilities. Later, funded projects and his own lab enabled the development of 15 varieties through 35 PhDs.
“I was always concerned about using molecular breeding’s power for precision, time, and cost savings,” he notes.
MAS enabled pinpointing of genes amid random recombination, selecting elite lines that balanced yield with Basmati’s defining traits — aroma, grain length, elongation, volume expansion, and mouthfeel.
Norman Borlaug’s words resonate: “Plants do speak, but in whispers… heard by those in close contact.” Today, AI amplifies this listening.
Sustainable fields: Conquering water, weeds, emissions
Traditional transplanting consumes 2,000–4,000 litres of water per kg of rice, relying on puddled fields and standing water. Singh championed direct-seeded rice (DSR) through herbicide-tolerant varieties like Pusa Basmati 1979 and 1985, capable of withstanding imazethapyr to control weeds responsible for up to 80% yield losses.
The results are striking:
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30% water savings.
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Labour cost reductions of Rs 4,000 per acre.
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A 35% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, opening avenues for carbon credits worth up to Rs 10,000 per acre.
After two seasons, DSR is proving to be a “game changer,” addressing groundwater depletion in Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh.
Farmer Pritam Singh. a leading Basmati growers in his fields
Environmental concerns about herbicide use persist, but Singh counters with data. India uses about 10,000 tonnes of active ingredients annually, with rice dominating applications of pendimethalin, butachlor, and bispyribac. Herbicide-tolerant varieties reduce dosage and allow safer, more effective alternatives.
“These apprehensions are ill-conceived,” he asserts, prioritising evidence over dogma while safeguarding Basmati’s GI integrity.
Farmer faces: Metrics of the heart
Beyond science, Singh’s deepest impact lies in his bond with farmers across Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh.
Farmers cultivating Pusa Basmati varieties report yields of 28–30 quintals per acre, exemplified by Pritam Singh Hanzra of Urlana Khurd village, Panipat. The Hanzra family, originally from Gujranwala in Pakistan and resettled after Partition, began with 5.5 acres in 1980. Today, they own 33 acres and lease another 150 acres.
“Over the years, we expanded steadily,” says Pritam Singh, 60. “We are prosperous, with our own homes, and our children are well-educated.”
Harpreet Singh, 38, from Nagoki village in Sirsa — who mentors nearly 1,500 farmers — recalls Singh spending nights over cups of tea at Kisan Melas, patiently addressing farmers’ concerns.
Farmers growing Pusa Basmati 1401 now seek herbicide-tolerant versions. Non-GM tolerant lines like Pusa Basmati 1979 and 1985, developed through ALS gene mutations, demonstrate what is possible.
“Make Pusa Basmati 1401 herbicide tolerant,” urges Buddh Singh, a Haryana farmer cultivating Basmati since 1998. “If you need good quality grains and also save water.”
Torchbearers and climate frontiers
Dr Singh has mentored 35 PhD scholars and five MSc students, many of whom earned IARI’s Best Student and Jawaharlal Nehru Medals. He encouraged civil services preparation alongside research, and his students now serve across academia, the Indian Foreign Service, Police, and Forest Services.
One former student, Dr Haritha Bollinedi, now a Senior Scientist at ICAR-IARI, recalls travelling with him across eastern Uttar Pradesh to promote improved Kalanamak varieties.
“He taught me that a breeder’s duty extends beyond developing varieties — it includes ensuring they reach farmers’ fields.”
Dr Singh has mentored 35 PhD scholars and five MSc students, many of whom earned IARI’s Best Student and Jawaharlal Nehru Medals.
Climate change looms large. Singh now looks to new breeding technologies, speed breeding, genomic selection, and wild rice pre-breeding to address drought, floods, pests, and nutritional deficits. Biotic resistance reduces pesticide use, preventing export rejections due to residue limits.
AI, drones, machine learning, and blockchain, he believes, will define the future of traceable, sustainable Basmati farming.
“These hold the key,” he says, ensuring India’s Basmati dominance amid global competition.
From dung-washed grains to billion-dollar harvests, Dr Singh’s journey mirrors India’s agricultural transformation. In Basmati fields, whispers have grown into roars of gratitude — a legacy rooted in soil, science, and service.
