I would be very happy to contribute to increase the popularity of the
Patna Rice. In fact, it would be more appropriate to say exploit the
popularity of patna rice since the rice is very popular in itself.

I will try to put together a comprehensive article of all I know
about it over the weekend. For the present, I am putting the basic
facts as are known to me:

1. Patna Rice in Europe and America refers to long grain mild
flavoured rice which does not loose its shape when cooked. This makes
it very useful for the European style of cooking. The rice that is
popular in the far eastern part like Korea or China is the short
grained which becomes gooey.

This perception of the westerners may or may not be correct, but has
great financial implications.

2. A number of europeans made their fortune selling rice by the name
Patna Rice. They are the ones who made this brand popular. One nanmed
a city in Scotland after Patna, another in America.

3. Abul Fazal refers to Patna rice in his chronicle of the mughal
period.

2 and 3 above can be used to build legends.

4. Bihar has seen a green revolution of sorts in the last few years.
Unknown to most, Bihar has achieved self sufficieny in food grains
and today buys more tractors than even agricultural states like AP
and Maharashtra. I expect it to become food suplus from next year
onwards - the only example of a green revolution without govt
support. Our farmers would need help of this sort to take this
forward.