Basmati rice varieties were developed over centuries in the agricultural lands carved out of the foothills of the Himalaya. The first written reference to Basmati rice dates back to the beginning of the eighteenth century, and since then, farmers have developed hundreds of types of this fragrant variety.
Today, Basmati paddies can be found around the world, but it is in the Indian Himalayas near the area where the rice variety was first developed that some of the best Basmati rice is still grown. Dehraduni Basmati rice is cultivated in a region that is flat, no higher than 700 meters altitude, located south of the Ganges River and north of the Yamuna River.
All of the phases of cultivation are done by hand with traditional methods (from the transplanting of the seed to the harvest) and simple tools are used: sickle, plough and wooden harrow dragged by oxen. The rice is cultivated in rotation with peas, pulses, millets and wheat, or with mustard and wheat grain.