Other companies tell you they source from Bihar. We tell you which pond. Which village. Which family. Because this is that village. This is that family.
Vaishali district sits in the Gangetic-Gandak plains of North Bihar — some of the most fertile agricultural land on the subcontinent. The alluvial soil here has been farmed continuously for over two thousand years.
This is also the district where, around the 6th century BCE, the Lichchhavi clan established what historians now recognise as one of the world's earliest republics — the Vajji confederacy, governed by an assembly of thousands of elected representatives who met in a building called the Sansthagar. Lord Buddha visited Vaishali multiple times and delivered his last sermon here. Lord Mahavira, the 24th Tirthankara of Jainism, was born nearby. The Ashoka pillar at Kolhua still stands.
We mention this not to borrow prestige from ancient history, but because it is ours. This is the ground we walk on. Village Manpura, Distt Vaishali, Bihar. The same land. The same soil.
~6th BCE
World's first republic
The Vajji confederacy of Vaishali — governed by an elected assembly of representatives centuries before Athens.
85–90%
Of the world's makhana
Comes from Bihar. India produces the vast majority of the world supply. Bihar is where makhana cultivation began and where it still lives.
2022
GI tag — Mithila Makhana
The Government of India recognised Mithila (North Bihar) as the geographical origin of makhana. A legal "birth certificate" for what we grow.
Makhana grows in stagnant freshwater ponds, 4 to 6 feet deep. You cannot grow it on a normal field. You cannot mechanize the harvest. You cannot replicate the popping process in a factory without losing quality.
The Mallah community — the fishermen and farmers of Bihar's wetland districts — have been harvesting makhana for generations. They wade chest-deep into muddy, thorn-filled ponds with zero visibility, dragging seed pods off the pond floor by feel. One dive session lasts 30 to 45 minutes. This knowledge is entirely oral, entirely generational, entirely irreplaceable.
After sun-drying, the seeds are roasted in a large iron pan. At the exact right moment — judged by sound, smell, and touch — a worker strikes the seed with a wooden mallet called the Thaapee. The shell bursts. The white kernel appears. Too early and it won't pop. Too late and it scorches. This moment cannot be automated. Not yet. Perhaps not ever.
Our processing unit is in the same district where the crop is grown. There is no chain of traders, no cold storage in another state, no middleman who has never seen a makhana pond. The seed goes from water to drying mats to our roasting pan to your door — with as few hands in between as we can manage.
Not a business school problem. A very practical one that anyone in an Indian farming family will recognise immediately.
A farmer in Vaishali grows and processes makhana.
Sells to a local aggregator.
Who sells to a district-level trader.
Who sells to a state-level wholesaler.
Who sells to a national distributor.
Who sells to a regional retailer.
Who sells to you.
The farmer gets 15 to 25 paise of every rupee you spend. The rest disappears into a chain of people who added no value to the makhana itself.
We grow. We process. We pack. We ship.
You order.
It leaves our unit in Vaishali.
It reaches your door.
That is the entire chain. A fair price for you. A livelihood that makes sense for us. Nothing in between that doesn't add value.
“When you buy from us, you are not buying from a brand. You are buying from a village.”
— Manpura Agro, Village Manpura, Distt Vaishali, Bihar
Our fertilizer products are not an afterthought. They are the other half of the same idea. The cow dung compost and goat manure we sell come from animals raised in the same agricultural belt as our makhana.
The soil that grows the next crop is fed by the waste of the animals that live on this land. The crop feeds people. The packaging returns to earth. This is how farming worked before it was broken into separate industries. We are just putting the loop back together.
If you grow vegetables on a terrace in Pune or a balcony in Delhi, our goat manure will feed your soil the same way it feeds ours. The distance does not change what it is.
A small team. A real address. The same phone number that picks up when you have a question.
Registered office
Manpura Agro
L3/1B, S. K. Puri
Boring Road
Patna 800 001, Bihar
Processing unit
Manpura Agro
Village Manpura
Distt Vaishali
Bihar, India
Middle East HQ
Akaar Enviro
610, Fujairah Trade Centre
Fujairah, UAE
+971 9 222 0737