Name: Rupesh Kumar Jha
Country: India

Year: 2025
Volume: Volume-12, Issue-1 (January-June)
Page Number: 317-330
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18922563

ABSTRACT
Makhana (Euryale ferox) is a distinctive high-value aquatic crop system that links wetland ecology, labour-intensive harvesting, and processing into an increasingly commercial value chain. Yet the socioeconomic base of the sector remains predominantly smallholder, shaped by land fragmentation, dependence on leased ponds/wetlands, informal marketing, and high
exposure to flood risk. This study develops an empirical and transparent socioeconomic profile of makhana farmers in North Bihar by synthesising verifiable secondary sources and peer-reviewed field studies concentrated in the core producing belt. The analysis treats makhana cultivators as ―smallholders embedded in a high-value aquatic system‖ and structures evidence on demographics, education, landholding and pond tenure, occupational diversification, labour organisation, institutional access (credit, cooperatives, extension), marketing channels and price realisation, assets and basic services, and risk and coping. Because district-level microdata for makhana households are not available in official publicuse datasets, the study is explicitly a secondary-data profile; it does not estimate household
regressions and documents limitations throughout. The results highlight a sector where smallowned land is commonly complemented by leased aquatic areas, where household labour availability interacts with drudgery-intensive operations, where collective institutions mediate access to ponds and marketing, and where market participation is constrained by informational asymmetry and price volatility. Policy implications emphasise tenure and water-body governance that protects small lessees, mechanisation and safety in processing to reduce drudgery, market infrastructure and price discovery, and risk-management packages
aligned with the flood-prone ecology of North Bihar.

Keywords: Makhana; Euryale ferox; smallholders; pond leasing; North Bihar; Mithila; Kosi; value chain; rural institutions; flood risk