Makhana Cultivation

15.07.2024

Makhana Cultivation

Why in the news?

Makhana is in demand as a ‘super snack’, with its prices soaring in domestic and international markets since 2019.

About Makhana Cultivation:

• Foxnut, commonly known as Makhana, is an important aquatic crop.
• It is grown in stagnant perennial water bodies like ponds, land depressions, oxbow lakes, swamps and ditches.
• It is a plant of tropical and subtropical
• The Makhana plant is considered a native of Southeast Asia and China but is distributed to almost every part of the world.

Required climatic conditions

○Temperature: 200C to 350 C

○Relative humidity: 50% to 90%

○Annual rainfall: 100 cm to 250 cm

○Soil: Smooth loamy soil

• In India it is mainly distributed in the states of Bihar, West Bengal, Manipur, Tripura, Assam, Jammu & Kashmir, Odisha, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh & Uttar Pradesh but is commercially produced in a few states only.
• Bihar in India is the leading state in its production and processing. It is estimated that Bihar accounts for more than 80 percent of total Makhana production in the country.
• Makhana is a product approved under the Union government’s One District One Product scheme, under which subsidies are provided to food processors for branding, marketing and developing infrastructure.

Benefits of Makhana

• It is a kind of hydrophyte used both as a drug and food which exhibits many application and development prospects in the fields of medicine, food and economy.
• Makhana is the seed of a cash aquatic crop, which was popularly used as an herb and food in China. Makhana possessed high nutritional value and many medical and health protection effects.

                                                               Source: The Hindu

Ques :- With reference to Makhana crop, consider the following statements:

1. It is cultivated in stagnant perennial water bodies.

2. It is grown in tropical and subtropical climatic conditions.

3. Uttar Pradesh is the leading state in production and processing of Makhana in India.

How many of the above statements are correct?

A.Only one

B.Only two

C.All three

D.None

Answer B