How Makhana farmers split their time between muddy ponds & the city

In Bihar, many farmers of makhana or the global “superfood,” leave for cities to make up for the shortfall in agricultural income. 

Shaba Manzoor

Nuzhat Khan

Large lotus leaves spread across a narrow water channel running along the fields in Murli Basantpur village, Saharsa. Shaba Manzoor/The Migration Story

SAHARSA, Bihar: Every year, when the makhana, or foxnut, season draws to a close in the ponds and wetlands of Bihar, several men and women employed in the arduous farming of the “black diamond” leave for nearby metropolises in search of seasonal work. 

In 2024, the Indian makhana market was valued at ₹8.5 billion. India produces and exports most of the world’s makhana. Bihar alone accounts for 90% of this. In 2022, ‘Mithila Makhana’ was given a Geographical Indication (GI) tag, a certification that links a product’s origin to a specific geographical location. 

Two years later, the government announced in the 2025-2026 union budget that a Makhana Board would be established in Bihar “to improve production, processing, value addition, and marketing of makhana.”

Swanky branding—organic, gluten-free, low-calorie snack—has placed makhana in Shark Tank pitches and quick-commerce apps for urban consumers. The state’s makhana farmers, however, largely stand on the periphery of its global visibility. 

Farmers, thereby, are increasingly migrating out of villages to tide over the income gaps, often a consequence of precarious incomes, lack of scientific and market knowledge, price volatility, and weather uncertainties. 

The cost of labour-heavy farming 

Makhana farming is an excruciatingly labour-intensive, time-consuming, and physically challenging process. For all this effort, producers earn little.  A 2023 study conducted in Darbhanga district found that the average cost of cultivation was around ₹1 lakh per hectare. Price per kilo was estimated to be ₹54. In this, human labour accounted for more than a third, or nearly 36 percent, of the total cultivation cost.

There are two ways of cultivating Makhana. When being done in ponds, the seeds are planted in December and harvested in September after 9 to 10 months. On fields, it is sowed in December, transplanted between February to April, and harvested after August. 

“I start by cleaning the field. Then I tie the plants with a tractor, move them to the cattle shed, and make sure they get manure and water,” said 17-year-old Prahlad Kumar from Saharsa district’s Murli Basantpur village. “Even in winter, the work has to be done,” he added.

For extracting the foxnuts, the plants are left to dry in the water. Seeds that sink to the bottom are collected by labourers, packed into sacks, and taken to the laba or other storage sites.

Once harvested, the multi-step processing of the nut into edible makhana begins. According to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the seeds are roasted at extremely high temperatures, rested for a couple of days, roasted again, and finally struck with a mallet to make them pop.

Although mechanisation is gradually expanding, most makhana processing continues to be done by hand. Dr. Manoj Kumar, senior scientist at the National Research Center for Makhana in Darbhanga said that commercial interest in the crop is still relatively new. “Only in the last five to seven years has demand grown beyond its cultural use in rituals like Gau Jagra Pooja,” he explained.

Farmers without processing skills, or those cultivating on rented ponds and fields, face higher labour costs. Machines, particularly those used for popping, are available and being adopted rapidly. However, Dr. Kumar noted, “in such a short span of growth, manufacturing and supply have not fully caught up with demand.”

“The bulk of farmers sell only the raw seeds, known locally as gudi, rather than the more lucrative popped lava. Processing requires specialised expertise, traditionally concentrated within the Sahni (fishermen) community, limiting who can access the higher margins,” he added. 

High entry costs fetters broader access to machines. “A full-fledged processing unit can cost ₹25–30 lakh, while even a single popping machine comes at ₹7–8 lakh,” Dr. Kumar said. “Harvesting continues to be the process's most labour-intensive and costly stage.”

Lotus-covered wetlands extend across the fields under a web of power lines in Murli Basantpur village, Saharsa. Shaba Manzoor/The Migration Story

The beginning and the end of migration 

Across the fertile floodplains of the Kosi River in eastern Bihar's Saharsa district, makhana materialises as one of the most important cash crops of the region. But agricultural income alone proves insufficient to sustain a household year-round.

Prahlad learnt the work from his father, now, he tends to three and a half bighas [around 2 acres] of plots his family rents. They pay around ₹10,000 to ₹15,000 as rent. After covering rental costs and purchasing farming inputs, little remains from the earnings, he told The Migration Story. 

To keep his household afloat, Prahlad boards a train to Delhi. “After the harvest, there is little farm work for two to four months,” he said. “That's when I leave.” 

In Delhi, Prahlad supplies water to construction sites, factories, and residential areas for ₹400–₹700 a day. He earns somewhere around ₹20,000 to ₹30,000 in the summer months, which drops to roughly ₹10,000 to ₹15,000 in the winter season. 

He uses this money to purchase manure, seeds, and other farming inputs for the next cycle. “Without it, managing the farm would be difficult,” he said. 

In his absence, Prahlad’s brother looks after the fields, and the two alternate between city and village, between one kind of labour and another. In the city, Prahlad rents a small room that he shares with two or three men from his village. “We split the expenses and cook together. The city is busier and more crowded than the village, but over time, I have grown used to it,” he said. 

5.43 crore Indians migrate across states, comprising 4.5% of the total population. In Bihar, nearly 7.2% of the state’s population are out-migrants, the highest in the country. As per the 2011 Census, 7.5 million people identified Bihar as their state of origin, with most leaving in search of work or employment.

Research suggested that this outflow is due to unequal human development and a lack of employment opportunities in both farm and non-farm sectors. “Apart from farming, there is no other work in the village. But farming feeds a family for only six months,” said 40-year-old Arvind Ram, who has been cultivating foxnuts for two decades in Basudewa village, Saharsa. 

“Since 1998, I have been travelling to Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, and Haryana, where I supervise construction activities,” he said. 

While the job requires Arvind to be away from Basudewa for months, the wages help sustain his family. Like Kumar and Ram, most farmers follow a similar pattern. They remain in the village until harvest. Afterwards, they head to the city in search of work. 

“Bihar has historically seen large-scale seasonal migration. However, with profitable crops like makhana, reverse migration is also happening, where people are returning home to cultivate their land,” said Dr. Kumar.

Migration is likely to be the route for farmers with fewer resources or those cultivating rented land, who leave during the lean period between harvests to supplement their income, he explained.

A small brick house stands beside a water channel filled with lotus leaves in Murli Basantpur village, in the Mithila region of Bihar. Shaba Manzoor/The Migration Story

Climate uncertainties shrink profits

“Earnings depend entirely on the season. There was no rain this year and the summers were extremely hot. We had to run machines to pump water and keep at least two feet in the ponds, otherwise the crop would have been ruined,” Arvind told The Migration Story.

The expenses, he explained, had already eaten into his income. “We had to pump in so much water that I do not expect much to be left over this time,” he said.

“Makhana is an aquatic crop that requires abundant water, but Bihar has faced severe monsoon deficits,” said Dr. Kumar. “Water scarcity is forcing farmers to over-extract groundwater, which is unsustainable in a water-stressed country like India. The per capita water availability here is around 1,4oo cubic meters, and in Bihar it is just about 1,000.”

The solution, he recommended, is to restrict expansion of makhana to low-lying areas with natural water reserves or rain-fed ponds, rather than repeating the mistakes of Punjab and Haryana, where reckless groundwater use during the Green Revolution led to long-term ecological damage.

Arvind said that losses have become routine. “In the third year of the Ukraine war, the crop did not sell well. We bought at ₹3,000 and spent the same on labour, so there was no profit. Sometimes we even left the plants standing, unharvested.”

“Even with good quality manure and seeds, you cannot fight natural disasters. In the last 5 to 10 years, incomes have only gone down.”

Prahlad added that, “The biggest problems we face are unpredictable weather and pests. If there is an infestation, I have to buy medicines from the market, which costs a lot of money.”

“If I manage to save ₹2,000 or ₹4,000 after expenses, it is considered good. Some years, I might save ₹20,000, but there are also years when nothing is left. It depends entirely on the market rate.”

Structural failures 

A 2023 study found that most makhana farmers could not secure remunerative prices for their produce, while middlemen continued to corner the bulk of consumer profits. The majority of cultivators are small and marginal farmers, with many landless labourers leasing ponds or plots to cultivate makhana.

“Middlemen are another problem. Some sell at ₹20,000, others at ₹15,000 or even ₹10,000, and it directly affects our earnings,” said Arvind. 

According to Dr. Kumar, makhana is a capital-intensive crop, but with little access to institutional credit, many farmers have to borrow from informal moneylenders charging exorbitant interest. As a result, they are often forced to sell their harvest in distress.

In Madhubani and Katihar, farmers face the same structural under-developments, especially lack of land or pond ownership, access to credit, and protection from volatile markets. While Makhana is extremely profitable, five to ten times more than other crops, its expansion must be sustainable and inclusive, Dr. Kumar explained. 

“When I sell the crop, I rarely get a fair price from middlemen,” said Prahlad. “Makhana gets a high value abroad, but we barely get a fraction of that,” he said. Arvind and Prahlad stressed the need for a minimum support price, arguing that the returns do not compensate for the grueling labour of cultivation.

Shaba Manzoor is a freelance journalist based in India, focusing on stories at the intersection of culture, social issues, and inclusion. Her work often highlights underrepresented communities, accessibility for persons with disabilities, and grassroots initiatives driving change.

Nuzhat Khan is an independent journalist based out of New Delhi, India. She reports at the intersections of climate, gender, society, and politics.