The Miniket saga: Our love for a rice variety that does not exist
Over the last two decades, Miniket rice has become so popular that even people living in the remotest villages opt for it. The rice market, be it wholesale or retail shops, are flooded with it. But there is no paddy named Miniket in the field
A consumer walks into a store. His eyes immediately rest on the shiny white rice on display. He asks for five kilograms of Miniket, pays a hefty sum for it, and goes back home happy.
When cooked, if the rice tastes odd, or is overboiled, he thinks there is something wrong with the cooking.
"They scold their wives and tell them that they [wives] have failed to cook the rice well," said an influential rice mill owner, chuckling, but also asking that his name not be mentioned in this article.
Over the last two decades, Miniket rice has become so popular that even people living in the remotest villages opt for it. The rice market, be it wholesale or retail shops, are flooded with it. But there is no paddy named Miniket in the field.
Millers and businessmen are making huge profits from selling cheap rice at a higher price using the name Miniket.
According to a recent study, millers are making Miniket and Najirshail rice from BRRI-28, BRRI-29 rice varieties of paddy, two of the highest yielding paddy crops in the country. Their market price is usually Tk40 per kilogram. Meanwhile, Miniket or Najirshail are usually priced at around Tk55 to Tk60.
Over the last few years, the government has formed different committees and conducted research and studies on Miniket rice. However, the government could not succeed in stopping this malpractice.
The Food Planning and Monitoring Unit (FPMU), an agency under the Ministry of Food conducted a survey in 2020. The survey found that the modern auto rice millers are changing the size of the rice, polishing the rice and making it look shiny.
As a result, there is no scope for recognising which rice is coming from which paddy.
The survey also found that during the polishing and whitening, the rice loses its nutrients: protein, fat, vitamin, minerals which stay on the outer layers of the rice. During the process, the rice loses these important valuable food elements.
"As there is no policy regarding the milling of rice, millers are milling and changing the size of the rice and branding the rice, setting the price according to their own whims and making consumers buy the rice," the 25-page study of the FPMU reads.
Rice millers admit that they have long been selling different varieties of rice in the name of Miniket and 'Najirshail' in the market, because the demand for Miniket is huge. They sometimes find it hard to supply Miniket rice.
"If we do not name it Miniket, you will not buy it. We become compelled to name it Miniket only because you want Miniket on your dining table," said Layek Ali, the general secretary of the Bangladesh Auto Major and Husking Mill Owners Association.
"If I call it jirashail, you will not touch it. The scent is all right. The size is also ok. But you will not buy it. If I call it Miniket, you will not give it a second thought," added Layek Ali.
Layek Ali said that people have been largely cultivating jirashail across the country. They are selling the jirashail rice in the name of Miniket, while all the Najirshail are made from katari and jira paddy.
"We do not have Najirshail either. In the past, we used to make Najirshail from paijam paddy. But now there are some slim varieties in the aman season which are now used to make Najirshail. Currently, Najirshail is made from katari," said Layek Ali.
When Ali was asked about alleged overpolishing, he said that millers polish the rice until it becomes attractive.
However, when the government agency study said that the consumers are becoming a victim of the profit-making auto rice mill owners and the consumers keep on being cheated, not much was done. Even the government's consumer rights body, the Directorate of National Consumers Rights Protection, has not taken any initiative in this regard.
"We have not got any complaint about the Miniket rice from any consumers yet," said Shameem Al Mamun, director of the Directorate of National Consumers Rights Protection. He said that the food ministry has the jurisdiction to take steps against rice mill owners.
However, rice mill owners' leaders like Layek Ali knew that due to overpolishing, rice loses valuable nutrients, protein and fibre and many other minerals which sit on the outer layers of rice.
"We supply it because consumers want it," said Layek Ali.
The intervention of the High Court
As the government has failed to stop the malpractice, Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh, a human rights body, filed a writ petition in the High Court seeking justice. On 21 November 2021, a High Court bench asked the government to submit a list of auto rice millers who make and market the 'Miniket' and 'Nazirshail' rice by polishing different varieties of rice.
The court also directed that a research report be submitted within four months on whether there is any risk to public health due to trimming or polishing the rice and whether the nutritional value of food is lost.
At the same time, the court issued a rule to explain why directives or guidelines will not be given to stop the making or marketing of rice with lower nutritional value.
How the very name 'Miniket' came to be
Jiban Krishna Biswas, former director-general of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute, said there is no paddy variety called Miniket in Bangladesh.
The government of India's West Bengal developed a rice variety called 'shatwabdi' and distributed it among crop farmers as a new variety, sealed in mini packets, which were called 'Miniket' in 2002.
And thus the origin of the word 'Miniket', for the type of rice we buy from our markets now lies in the packets in which the rice variety was sold 20 years ago.
He also said that some of our farmers in bordering districts like Jessore and Jhenaidah brought this variety and began cultivating it in Bangladesh.
"The variety is no longer being cultivated by our farmers now," said Jiban Krishna Biswas.
Another initiative taken
Food Ministry's secretary Mosammat Nazmanara Khanum told The Business Standard that they want to formulate a milling guideline to stop the malpractice. The ministry has already formed a committee headed by the ministry's additional secretary Khaja Abdul Hannan.
"We will see the international as well as neighbouring country's milling practices. Then we will set our standard," she said.
"In a programme, I heard the [BRRI] DG saying that we can save rice nutrients if the milling is 8 percent, but in our country milling is around 30 percent," said the Food Ministry's secretary.
Khanum believes that when the guideline is completed, we will be able to take actions against millers who do abide by the guideline.
