Basmati, meaning ‘Queen of Fragrance’ is a variety of long grain rice, famous for its fragrance and delicate flavour.

Basmati rice is primarily cultivated in India and Pakistan. The Himalayan foothills are said to produce the best basmati. The Super Basmati, a premium variety from Pakistan and Dehra Dun from India, are the most prized of the basmati varieties. Patna rice is a close cousin of basmati rice grown around Patna in Bihar. The best types of basmati rice are aged for several years before they are milled and sold, as rice cooks better with a lower moisture content.

The grains of basmati rice are much longer than they are wide, and they grow even longer as they cook. They stay firm and separate, not sticky, after cooking. Basmati rice is available both as a white rice and a brown rice. Both of these cook in about 20 minutes. Due to the high amount of starch clinging to the rice grains, many cooks wash this rice before cooking it. Soaking it for half an hour to two hours before cooking makes the grains less likely to break in cooking.

In 2000, the US corporation RiceTec (a subsidiary of RiceTec AG of Liechtenstein) attempted to patent three lines created as hybrids of basmati rice and semi-dwarf long-grain rice. The Indian government intervened and the attempt was thwarted. Meanwhile, the European Commission has agreed to protect basmati rice under its regulations pertaining to geographical indications.

A number of varieties of Basmati rice exist. Traditional ones include Basmati-370, Basmati-385 and Basmati-Ranabirpura, while hybrid basmati varieties include Pusa Basmati 1 (also called 'Todal', because the flower has awns). Fragrant rices that are derived from basmati stock but are not considered true basmati varieties include PB2 (also called sugandh-2), PB3 and RH-10.

Traditional basmati plants are tall and slender and are prone to lodging in high winds. They have a relatively low yield, but produce high-quality grains and command high prices in both Indian and international markets.

The Rice Research Institute at Kala Shah Kaku (Pakistan) has been instrumental in developing various varieites of Basmati rice, including the popular variety of Super Basmati. Dr. Majeed is the scientist who developed this variety of Basmati rice in 1996.

Scientists at Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, New Delhi took the traditional basmati and genetically modified it to produce a hybrid which had most of the good features of traditional basmati (grain elongation, fragrance, alkali content) and the plant was a semi-dwarf type. This basmati was called Pusa Basmati-1. PB1 crop yield is higher than the traditional varieties (up to twice as much).

India is the largest producer and exporter of basmati rice in the world. The annual production in the country hovers at around 10-15 lakh tons a year, of which around two-thirds is exported. The remaining is consumed, within the country.

Basmati rice is grown exclusively in the northern part of Western Punjab (on both sides of the Indo-Pakistan border), Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh.