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Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s over a decade old dream to have at least one food item from Bihar on every Indian’s plate is likely to become a reality, with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announcing the setting up of a Makhana Board in the state, as part of Union Budget 2025-26.
This is set to give a big boost to Makhana or fox nut production, its processing and marketing in Bihar. It was a long-awaited step that has coincidentally come in an election year as the next Bihar Assembly polls will be held in October-November 2025.
Sitharaman’s announcement for setting up a Makhana Board is widely seen as a part of well-calculated move to help the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) headed by Nitish Kumar on development front this election year. A Makhana Board is one of the several announcement made in the Union budget for Bihar.
Setting up of a Makhana Board will provide much-awaited financial and technological support to thousands of Makhana-growing farmers in the flood-prone Mithilanchal, Kosi and Seemanchal regions of Bihar. Processing units will generate employment in its rural areas.
Besides, the latest package in the budget will encourage more and more farmers to start growing Makhanas and entrepreneurs to set up processing and marketing units for it.
“If such a Board helps Makhana-growing farmers with financial and technical support and provides marketing, it is going to be a new opportunity for us. Makhana-growing farmers are poor and facing a lot of challenge due to lack of facilities and proper support. We will work hard to cultivate more and produce more Makhana, which is till date a labour-intensive task,” Satyendar Jha, a Makhana growing farmer of Madhubani district, known for the best quality Makhanas told Down To Earth.
According to official data from the state agriculture department, Bihar’s share is highest in Makhana production in the country. It accounts about 85 per cent of total output.
Makhana seeds have been cultivated in about 35,000 hectares, mainly in the districts of Madhubani, Darbhanga and Sitamarhi in the Mithilanchal region, Saharsa and Supaul in the Kosi region and Katihar, Purnea, Kishanganj and Araria in the Seemanchal region by nearly 25,000 farmers.
Bihar Agriculture Minister Mangal Pandey said at Makhana Mahotsav held in Patna last year that the government has been taking initiatives to increase Makhana production in the state on the directive of CM Kumar, who is keen to promote Makhana cultivation, processing and business from the state.
Pandey then said that the government has been providing subsidy to Makhana-growing farmers in the state and its aim is to double the number of such farmers.
If everything goes as per plan, 50,000 farmers will be associated with Makhana cultivation and will increase the cultivated area from 50,000 hectares to 60,000 hectres in the next two to three years.
Makhana cultivation in Madhubani, Mithilanchal, has already earned recognition under the One District One Product scheme of the central government and has also earned a Geographical Indication tag as Mithila Makhana.
Political watchers in Patna said the Makhana belt of Bihar comprising of the Mithilanchal and Kosi regions are the strongholds of the ruling NDA, both the Janata Dal-United of Nitish Kumar and the Bharatiya Janata Party. In the last Assembly polls in 2020, the ruling NDA performed well in both regions, helping it to return to power. But it performed poorly in the drought-prone Magadh region.
“The announcement of setting up of a Makhana Board is not only to develop an agro-based sector in the state and empower Makhana-growing farmers by providing financial, technical and marketing support. It is also a big gift to the people of Bihar’s impoverished and backward regions for supporting the ruling alliance in election after election,” said Satyanarayan Madan, a political watcher.