West Bengal
West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
Dakshin Dinajpur district
Dakshin Dinajpur (), also known as South Dinajpur, is a district in the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, India. It was created on 1 April 1992 by the division of the erstwhile West Dinajpur District. The head ...
. In 2012, the Government of West Bengal sent Tulaipanji rice to the food festival at the London Olympics.
Tulaipanji is an indigenous aromatic rice landrace grown mainly in Raiganj sub-division of North Dinajpur district of West Bengal, India. The aroma and quality of this rice variety are strongly associated with its native origin.
Tulaipanji is categorized as 'non-
Basmati
Basmati () is a variety of long, slender-grained aromatic rice which originates from the Indian subcontinent, mainly in the regions of Nepal, Punjab, Haryana, Sindh and many other states and provinces of India and Pakistan.friable due to high
amylose
Amylose is a polysaccharide made of α-D-glucose units, bonded to each other through α(1→4) glycosidic bonds. It is one of the two components of starch, making up approximately 20–25% of it. Because of its tightly packed Helix, helical struct ...
content.
Tulaipanji contains amylose – 28.3%, protein – 7.3%. It has comparable quality parameters like 77.1% hulling, 65% milling, 54.2% head rice recovery and alkali value at 4.0.
Traditionally, Tulaipanji is grown without using any fertilizer in mid-land to high-land condition and preferably in
jute
Jute ( ) is a long, rough, shiny bast fibre that can be Spinning (textiles), spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced from flowering plants in the genus ''Corchorus'', of the mallow family Malvaceae. The primary source of the fiber is ...
harvested fields, after rainy season during the August–December period. Low
soil fertility
Soil fertility refers to the ability of soil to sustain agricultural plant growth, i.e. to provide plant habitat and result in sustained and consistent yields of high quality.
and moisture stress generally prevail in the growing field and believed to be the key factor behind the aroma. Inorganic fertilizers are generally not used due to the reduction in aroma and other qualitative parameters.
Detailed descriptive parameters of Tulaipanji rice
The Tulaipanji rice when cooked turns out to be whitish-yellow, slender, non-sticky and tasty. The rice is excellent for preparation of pulao, fried rice and biryani. Tulaipanji is also very famous for its disease-pest resistance quality.