LS polls: Makhana traders demand policy redesign for opportunity pop-up

Returned from Britain and seasoned corporate worker Manish Anand Jha, who has worked in the construction industry for over 27 years, has made a comeback to Madhubani, driven by his ‘love for the country’, with the aim of making a makhana (puffed fox nut or gorgon ) to set up. nuts) processing plant at age 47.

Manish Anand’s factory is bordered by bamboo plants and open fields in Arer, Madhubani, over 160 kilometers from Patna and still strives for a clear export policy and good industrial organization.

“Despite the fact that the makhana industry was awarded the geographical indication label over two years ago, there is still no association with the makhana industry. Moreover, the absence of a Harmonized System of Nomenclature (HSN) code has made the road even tougher for this sector,” says Manish Anand.

Rajeev Ranjan, a graduate from IIT Kharagpur, has returned to his hometown Darbhanga to set up his farm production business. “Due to government policies, the superfood for the global market from the home of Black Diamond Growers & White Gold Poppers, Mithilanchal, Bihar, is not present in the global diaspora. The lack of an HSN code makes Makhana untraceable and untraceable in the global market, hampering exports and global presence,” says Ranjan.

“The manual process for makhana is the biggest challenge. Converting black seeds into white seeds is currently done by hand. There is no proper government data available, so all these factors make my work more dependent on manual labor, leading to difficulties in doing business,” says Mishra.

“There should also be some food parks for makhana so that we can get subsidies from the government,” he adds.

According to data shared by the Bihar Horticulture Development Society, 90 percent of the world’s makhana production will be done in India between 2021 and 2022. However, only 200 million tonnes of makhana pop are exported from India.

Traditional methods of obtaining makhana doll make exporting difficult.

A fully mechanized system for threshing, cleaning, seed sorting, drying, roasting and crushing of the gorgonut, a seed of an aquatic plant mainly grown in Bihar, has been developed by the Ludhiana-based Central Institute of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). of Post-Harvest Engineering and Technology (CIPHET).

Scientists Shyam Narayan (SN) Jha and Rajesh Kumar Vishwakarma received a patent from the Indian government in 2013 for the mechanized system for popping and decorating makhana seeds.

Ten years later, only 8 to 10 percent of the total seed conversion has been achieved.

“The real challenge of making the banging machines unpopular comes from other places, especially cities like Ambala (Haryana), Raipur (Chhattisgarh) and the state of Himachal Pradesh. This incurs significant costs in importing them,” said SN Jha, deputy director general of agricultural engineering, ICAR, speaking to Business Standard.

Industry insiders also point out that it is very difficult for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to import plants for the two- to three-month season.

“An expenditure of Rs 15 lakh becomes very difficult for an SME like ours in just three months. However, if it breaks down, we will not get any support from Bihar. That is why we prefer the manual method to obtain the makhana doll,” says Manish Anand.

Data from the Bihar Horticulture Development Society shows that the area under makhana production has increased by 171 percent in nine years, from 13,000 hectares (ha) in 2012-13 to 35,224 ha in 2021-2022.

“However, we are facing many problems in the western market in selling our makhana doll as manual makhana doll does not offer uniformity, leading to rejection in the international market,” Vishwakarma, chief scientist at ICAR-CIPHET told Business Standard.

Vishwakarma adds that since this particular sector is unorganized, this allows traders to control prices. “The problem also lies in the fact that the makhana industry has not received approval from foreign direct investment. There are also quality issues, due to which many shipments have been rejected abroad,” he added.

Makhana doll production is mainly carried out in 10 districts of Bihar namely Darbhanga, Madhubani, Sitamarhi, Purnea, Katihar, Saharsa, Supaul, Madhepura, Araria and Kishanganj. These districts collectively produce 56,388.79 tonnes of makhana seed and 23,656.1 tonnes of makhana doll.

This integrated machine costs around Rs 15 lakh to set up a small unit for producing 12 kilograms (kg) of puffed makhana per hour from processed seeds and has reduced the processing time from two to three days to just around 20 hours.

“The biggest problem is that people are not trained to operate those machines properly. Despite the government providing machines to improve this industry, people are not able to use them,” Mishra added.

Monopoly of traders

Since there is no specific market for makhana, traders have a monopoly on rates during the season.

Vikas Sahni, 46, a makhana farmer, said that since farmers do not have a specific mandi (market) for them, they are forced to forge ties with traders who often bargain for lower prices.

“Traders sometimes engage in arbitrariness when it comes to prices during the season in which we sell our seed. It can vary between Rs 12,000 and Rs 22,000 per 100 kg depending on the market,” he explains.

Pawan Sahni, 29, from Darbhanga district, who works to convert the black seeds of makhana into the popped variety by hand, says the margins received are small.

“We buy the makhana seeds from farmers; after a lot of hardships we are not getting good margins. We don’t have a good mandi to sell our makhana. We either have to go to traders or to the makhana processing companies, where sometimes we also have to compromise on terms,” he says.

Generally, several families from the Sahni community have been carrying out this work for years. These families always move to the 10 districts during the season.