Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan asserted in Darbhanga on Sunday that efforts would be made to develop thornless varieties of makhana (foxnut or gorgon nut) plants and mechanisation would be introduced to make it easy for farmers.

Chouhan added that the Makhana Board, announced in the Union budget for 2025-26, would not be constituted from Krishi Bhawan in Delhi, but by understanding the ground reality and as per the suggestions of the farmers.

Chouhan had scheduled an interaction with makhana cultivators in Darbhanga in the run-up to the establishment of the Makhana Board, announced in the Union budget for 2025-26. He visited the National Research Centre for Makhana at Darbhanga for the purpose and also took stock of the work being done there.

“We will use the latest technological interventions and mechanisation to reduce the cost of makhana cultivation. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research will make efforts to develop a thornless variety of makhana. Bihar is the leading producer of this super food and we are going to constitute a Makhana Board (under the Union Agriculture ministry) to increase its production,” Chouhan said.

Indicating that he meant business, Chouhan, along with Bihar deputy chief minister Samrat Choudhary, waded into a pond and sowed a few makhana plants. He received firsthand knowledge of its cultivation and remarked that it was a difficult process in which the farmers had to work the entire day in water.

“We have decided that the Makhana Board will not be formed by sitting at the Krishi Bhawan (which houses the Union agriculture ministry) in Delhi. I interacted with makhana farmers today because they are the best people to tell about their own issues and views. We will constitute the board on the basis of their inputs,” Chouhan said.

The farmers demanded that the board should be based at Darbhanga. They pointed out that the makhana farming process suffered due to a lack of mechanisation, absence of market and inadequate remuneration to small farmers.

One cultivator Ramnath Sahni said, “The government must address the problems of decreasing number of water bodies, falling water levels, and the way the produce is bought from farmers at very low prices and shifted to other states. The lack of capital and labourers is also negatively impacting makhana farming.”

Another cultivator-entrepreneur Shivesh Thakur of Madhubani said at the meeting with Chouhan that the “makhana seeds should be strengthened organically, automation should be brought into the process of taking out makhana kernels from ponds, which is currently done manually. The present makhana ecosystem focuses on post-harvest activities, due to which several farmers have switched over to growing other crops.”

The farmers also flagged the issue of subsidy, which they are unable to get because a large number of them are not the owners of land or ponds and cultivate makhana by taking them on lease.

“The Makhana Board should train farmers at block and panchayat levels in adopting the best practices in cultivation to boost production. Better marketing facilities should be provided because the middlemen in the markets conspire to bring down the rate of makhana kernels at the time of harvest,” a farmer Santoshi Kumari said.

“Makhana is among the most suitable crops for flood-prone districts, and farmers should stop indiscriminate use of chemical fertilisers and should be made to use organic fertilisers,” Santoshi added.