Long before eating popcorn while watching movies became popular, and before Netflix snacking became fashionable, the roasted crunchy desi makhana or fox nuts, sprinkled with salt and pepper, was the go-to snack in Indian households.
The nutritious makhana has now made a comeback as a global superfood with big food companies packaging and selling it. It is packed with the goodness of protein, fibre, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, iron and zinc, and is also low in fat.
Nearly 85-90 per cent of the global fox nuts production happens in Bihar, a state in the Indo-Gangetic Plains. An area of 35,000 hectares produces 56,000 tonnes of makhana in the state. Other states where it grows include Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Assam, etc.
Makhana are the edible seeds of the Euryale ferox plant, a type of water lily that grows in stagnant ponds and wetlands. Harvesting the nuts from the aquatic plant is laborious and the thorns in the plants roots, leaves, buds, flowers and fruits often draw blood.
The Mallah (boatmen) community of Bihar is traditionally associated with its cultivation, which is a highly tedious process, with the labourers spending long hours in the muddy waters.
Climate Change Impacting Makhana Production
The skilled fox nuts farmers are mostly landless. They lease ponds for a period of five years to cultivate makhana. But increasingly, makhana-cultivation has become a struggle with ponds disappearing, rains becoming unpredictable and temperatures rising.
Ideally, the makhana needs a temperature range of 20-35°C, relative humidity of 50-90 per cent and an annual rainfall of 1,000-2,500 millimetres (mm). But the temperature in Bihar has increased significantly, sometimes going up to 40-42℃, with the humidity dipping to 40–45 per cent. The average annual rainfall has reduced to 800 mm over the last few decades, notes a recent report, Climate Change and Makhana Farmers of Bihar: Opportunities, Challenges and Solutions.
The report has been jointly prepared by Regenerative Bihar , a Patna-based collective of farmers and NGOs, and Asar Social Impact Advisors (Asar), a Bengaluru-based start-up.
The report notes how, “now precipitation happens erratically and rainfall is concentrated in a few days. Rest periods are hot and sunny with very high humidity. These conditions are not ideal for the crop.”
Strengthening climate-resilient farming is the need of the hour, especially when livelihoods of some of the poorest communities depend on it, stated the joint report that was released on June 25 at Patna, by Bihar’s Cooperative Minister Prem Kumar. The minister pledged to implement the report’s recommendations and said that more cooperative societies would be formed to cater to production, processing and marketing of makhana.
Makhana Cultivators of Bihar
Darbhanga, Sitamarhi, Madhubani, Saharsa, Supaul, Araria, Kishanganj, Purnia, and Kathiar are the top makhana producing districts in Bihar (see map). There are different grades of makhana and the top quality can cost up to Rs 2,000 per kg. But farmers earn Rs 100-250 per kg depending on the quality of the makhana.
Regenerative Bihar and Asar interviewed 200 makhana farmers, and agricultural scientists, and have provided an in-depth assessment of the lives of makhana farmers in the state and how they are trying to fight climate change.
Three communities — Kols, Chaains and Vanpars (sub-castes of Mallahs or Sahnis) — are the backbone of makhana production in Bihar. Their intimate knowledge and understanding of rivers, lowlands, lakes, and ponds, makes them skilled makhana producers.
Men do the underwater and transplantation work, while the cleaning, drying, sorting, roasting, popping, and grading are done by women.
The Kols grow and harvest the crop. The Chaains process it, while the Vanpars are the aggregators and suppliers to the local mandis (markets) and other buyers.
A Laborious Process
Eligible members of the Kol community take local ponds on lease for a period of five years through a tender process. They clean up the water body and treat it with limestone powder and neem oil cakes. Seeds are sown in November and the saplings transplanted in March–April the following year.
The makhana plants grow to their fullest between April and August. When the monsoon arrives in July/August, the plants wilt and decay in the heavy rains and the seeds settle down on the pond beds that are harvested by divers (traditional method) between August and October. It takes 30 to 40 days to harvest the seeds from an acre of pond.
Climate Change and Makhana Farmers of Bihar: Opportunities, Challenges and Solutions has documented stories of traditional makhana farmers such as Sitaram Sahni, who says because of dumping of broken glass bottles and medical waste into the water bodies, harvesting has become quite risky.
Another farmer, Kusheshwar Sahni says that an amount of Rs 80,000 was provided to landowning farmers, who produce makhana over an acre every year, but none of the landless traditional makhana growers like him were able to benefit from it.
Farmers such as Ramvriksha Sahni pointed out how the long, hot and dry spells were drying out even deep ponds and lakes jeopardising their livelihoods. In the absence of irrigation facilities, the quality and quantity of the makhana yield were compromised.
Apart from the traditional farmers who cultivate makhana in ponds, there are some progressive and young farmers who cultivate the crop in fields (as against water bodies). They cultivate makhana in 1-3 feet of water in fields from April to September, and for the remaining months of the year, they cultivate other crops. Districts such as Purnia, Katihar and Araria have adopted such methods.
The Chaains clean the seeds, by trampling on them with their feet. Four or five of them work together, holding each other's shoulders. The seeds are then dried in the sunlight on mats made of date palm leaves.
The seeds are sorted using sieves, then roasted at a temperature of 250°C. The workers crush them on a wooden platform using a wooden hammer when the seeds are still hot, and the popped makhana is ready. The Vanpars then collect the popped makhana from producers and sell it to merchants.
Climate-Resilient Makhana Farming
In their report, Regenerative Bihar and Asar have put together recommendations to make makhana farming climate-resilient so that it benefits the communities who grow this crop.
Setting up of collectives, such as farmer producer companies for makhana farmers, farm workers, processors and local traders and aggregators, and providing them with institutional credit and financing, are some of the suggestions the report comes up with. Since makhana cultivation poses health risks, health insurance for the farmers is recommended. Longer leases on the water bodies have been put down as a possible way to secure livelihoods for the farmers.
The report emphasises on the need to merge traditional knowledge and modern technologies to create a comprehensive and holistic solution to climate change. Extension programmes for knowledge co-creation on climate change mitigation and sustainability should be implemented for all makhana farmers and farm workers.
It also strongly recommends skill-building of educated youth from makhana grower communities who can then take charge of marketing, branding and packaging of the product.
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