Umesh Kumar Ray

Shreya Katyayini

Photographs

Priti David

Editor

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“If the paan [betel leaf] had survived, it would have earned
me at least two lakh rupees [in 2023],” says the 29-year-old farmer from Dheuri village, regret and sadness in her voice. Karuna Devi lost her June 2023 crop to extreme heat waves in Nawada district of Bihar. Her bareja, once a lush garden, brimming with shiny leaves of the famed Magahi betel leaf on its trellises turned into a skeletal structure. She was forced to take up jobs in others&#39; barejas.  Nawada was among a dozen districts which faced the wrath of intense heat for days. “Lagta tha ki aasman se aag baras raha hai
aur humlog jal jayenge. Dopahar ko to gaon ekdam sunsan ho jata tha jaise ki
karfu lag gaya ho [It seemed as if fire was raining from the sky and we
would be burnt. In the afternoon the village would become completely deserted
as if curfew had been imposed],” she adds, describing the heat that year. The
district’s Warisaliganj weather station recorded a maximum temperature at 45.9
degree Celsius. And the subsequent heatwave that followed killed more than 100
people in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, according to a <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/heatwave-up-bihar-kill-100-india-heatwave/article66982736.ece">report</a> published in The Hindu, dated June 18, 2023.



Despite the blistering heat, “we would go to bareja,” Karuna Devi says. The family
was not taking any risk as they had taken a loan of Rs. 1 lakh to cultivate Magahi betel leaf a bareja spread over an area of six cottah [roughly 8,000 sq ft].

A betel-leaf
garden is called bareja or baretha in Bihar. The delicate vines cannot handle extreme weather and this hut-like
structure protects them from the scorching sun in summer and harsh winds in winter. It is typically fenced with sticks of bamboo, and palm
and coconut fronds, coir, paddy straws, and arhar
stalks. Inside the bareja, the soil
is ploughed into long and deep furrows. Stems are planted in such a way that
water does not collect near the root and rot the plants. 



Last year, to
counter the intense heat, Karuna Devi’s husband recalls how “we watered only
2-3 times a day as irrigating more would have increased expenses. But the
weather was so hot that it didn&#39;t survive. “Plants started drying up, and soon
the bareja was laid to waste,” says
40- year-old Sunil Chaurasia. Their entire cultivation of betel leaf was lost.
“I don&#39;t know how the loan will be repaid,” says a worried Karuna. 



Weather
patterns in the Magadh region are changing, say scientists studying the region.
“We are seeing that what used to be a homogeneous weather pattern has now
become quite erratic. There is a sudden increase in temperature and sometimes
it rains heavily within a day or two,&quot; says environmental scientist, Prof.
Pradhan Parth Sarthi.



Average
temperatures have shot up by 0.5 degree Celsius over the period 1958-2019, says
a research <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352801X22001230#:~:text=Higher%20unpredictability%20in%20monsoon%20rainfall,a%20significant%20sub%2Dregional%20variation">paper</a> titled
‘Environmental change and groundwater variability in South Bihar, India,’
published in Science Direct journal in 2022. Greater unpredictability of
monsoon rainfall is also evident from the 1990s onwards, it says.

“Magahi paan ka kheti jua jaisa hai
[Magahi betel leaf cultivation is as uncertain as gambling],” says Ajay Prasad
Chaurasia, another farmer of Dheuri village. He is speaking for the many Magahi farmers who now live on the edge.
“We work very hard, but there is no guarantee that betel plants will survive.”



Successive years of extreme weather is playing havoc with Magahi betel crops in the area. Betel leaves
are traditionally grown by Chaurasias who belong to the Extremely Backward
Class [EBC] in Bihar. There are over six lakh Chaurasias in the state,
according to a recent caste survey conducted by the Bihar government. 



Dheuri
village lies in Hisua block of Nawada; of its population of 1,549 (Census
2011), more than half are engaged in agriculture.

The 2023
heatwave was preceded by a spell of very heavy rain in 2022. “Lagta tha jaise pralay aane wala ho. Andhera
chha jata tha aur lagatar barsa hota tha. Humlog bheeg bheeg kar khet mein
rahte the.  [It looked
like catastrophe was on the way. The day would turn dark followed by heavy
rain. We would drench ourselves in water and despite this, stay in the field],”
says Ranjit Chaurasia. 



The 55-year-old
says he came down with a fever after that, and he also incurred a big loss.
“Majority of betel plant farmers in my village suffered loss that year,” he
says. “I had cultivated betel leaf in five cottah [roughly 6,800 sq ft]. The betel vines dried up due to
waterlogging.” Cyclone Asani in Odisha had caused the heavy rain that lasted
for three -four days.



“Heatwaves
dry out the soil, preventing the growth and when there is sudden rainfall,
plants dry up,&quot; adds Ranjit who is also president of the farmers collective, Magahi Pan Utpadak
Kalyan Samiti here. &quot;The plants were new. They should have been
looked after like a newborn baby. Those who did not, their betel vines dried
up,” he says. In 2023, Ranjit says his plants survived the severe heatwave as
he sprinkled water multiple times, “I had to water it many times. Sometimes 10
times a day.&quot;

Fellow Magahi farmer and neighbour Ajay says he faced losses twice in five
years due to extreme weather events. In 2019, the 45-year-old had grown betel
in four cottah (roughly 5,444 sq ft ). It was ruined by severe cold; in October 2021, heavy rains brought by
cyclone Gulab completely damaged the leaves. “I incurred a total loss of around
Rs. 2 lakhs in both years,” he recalls.

Ajay Chourasia
is tying the betel vines to thin stalks of bamboo or sarkanda to prevent them from swaying and dropping. The
heart-shaped shiny green betel leaves hang heavy on the vine; they will be
ready to be plucked in a few days. 



The
temperature in the lush green structure is cooler than the outside. Ajay says
that extreme hot, cold and excessive rain are the biggest threats for betel
plants. In scorching summer, if the maximum temperature rises beyond 40 degrees
Celsius, he must manually spray them with water. He puts an earthen pot of
water, carrying roughly five litres on his shoulder, and using his palm to
spread the flow of the water, moves slowly between the vines, sprinkling water
as he walks. &quot;We have to do it multiple times if the weather is too hot.
But there is no way to protect them from rain and cold,&quot; he points out. 



“Although
there has been no study on the extent to which climate change has contributed
to the erratic weather, the changing weather patterns indicate the impact of
climate change,” says Sarthi, who is the Dean of the School of Earth,
Biological and Environmental Science at Central University of South Bihar at
Gaya.



Ajay has eight cottah (roughly 10,000 sq ft) of his own land, but it is scattered, so he has taken a
three cottah plot on lease at Rs.
5,000 a year and spent about Rs. 75,000 to cultivate Magahi betel leaf in the leased land. He took a loan of Rs.
40,000 from the local self-help group, which has to be repaid in the next eight
months by paying Rs. 6,000 every month. “So far, I have deposited only Rs.
12,000 in two instalments,&quot; he says, speaking to us in September 2023.

Ajay’s wife, 40-year-old Ganga Devi sometimes helps him in the field, and also does agricultural labour work in other farmers’ fields. “It is a laborious job but we get just 200 rupees
daily,” she says about her wage work. Their four children – a nine-year-old
daughter and sons aged 14, 13 and 6 years, study in a government school in
Dheuri.



Crop losses caused by extreme weather events
have forced betel leaf farmers to work as labourers at other farmers&#39; betel
fields as they have expertise in this crop.

Magahi betel leaf get its name from Magadha where it is exclusively cultivated. The Magadha region of
Bihar includes Gaya, Aurangabad, Nawada and Nalanda districts of south Bihar.
“No one knows how and when the first Magahi
plant cuttings reached here but it has been growing for generations. We heard
that the first plant came from Malaysia,” says farmer Ranjit Chourasia, who has
a deep interest in the leaf and is the one who applied for the Geographical
Indicator (GI) tag for Magahi paan
leaf.



A Magahi
leaf is the size of a young child&#39;s palm – 8 to 15 cm long and 6.6 to 12 cm
wide. Fragrant and soft to the touch, there is almost no fibre in the leaf so
it dissolves very easily in the mouth – a singularly outstanding quality that
makes it superior to other species of betel leaf. Its shelf life is longer
too. After plucking, it can be kept for 3-4 months.

&quot;You
have to wrap them in wet cloth and keep them in a cool place and check daily if
any leaves are rotting. If so, you have to immediately remove it otherwise it
will spread to other leaves,&quot; says Ranjit. We watch him wrap the betel
leaves, seated on the floor at his pucca
house. 

He places
200 leaves on top of each other and cuts the stem with a hacksaw blade. Then he
ties the leaves with thread and puts them in a bamboo basket.



Betel plants
are propagated via cuttings since they don&#39;t bear flowers, hence no seeds.
&quot;When a fellow farmer&#39;s crop fails, other farmers share the cuttings from
their crops with him to re-establish his field. We never take money from each
other for that,” Ranjit Chaurasia says. 



The vines are grown in a bareja and it costs around Rs. 30,000 to build a bareja covering a cottah (roughly 1,361 sq ft); the cost goes up to Rs. 45,000 for two
cottahs. The soil is ploughed into
long and deep furrows, and the stems are planted besides the furrows where soil
accumulates so that water does not reach the plant&#39;s root as water logging at
the root rot the plants.

A single
vine of Magahi betel produces at
least 50 leaves in its year-long life. A leaf is sold for a rupee or two in the
local markets as well as in the wholesale mandi
of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh – the biggest betel leaf mandi in the country.

Magahi betel
leaf was <a href="https://ipindia.gov.in/writereaddata/Portal/IPOJournal/1_2559_1/Journal_101.pdf">awarded</a> a GI in 2017. The
GI is for leaves grown exclusively in 439 hectares of the geographical region
of Magadha. And the farmers were excited and relieved to have the GI. However, as
the years passed, they say they have not benefited. “We had expected
that the government would advertise Magahi
which would generate more demand and we would get a good rate, but nothing
happened,” Ranjit Chaurasia tells PARI. “The sad part is
that despite GI tag government is not doing anything for betel leaf farmers.
Government is not considering betel as agriculture,” he says.Betel leaf cultivation comes under <a href="https://horticulture.bihar.gov.in/HortMIS/PaanVikasYojana/OnlineApp.aspx">horticulture</a> in Bihar,  and farmers do not get benefits of agricultural schemes like crop insurance. “The
only benefit we get is compensation when our crops are damaged due to bad
weather but the compensation amount is laughable,” Ranjit Chaurasia says of the
Rs. 10,000 compensation for damage of a hectare (approximately 79 cottah). “If you calculate it in terms
of a cottah then each farmer gets
around Rs.126 for loss in one cottah.”
And he adds that farmers have to visit the district agriculture office many
times so often they don’t claim compensation.

After losing
their crop to extreme heat in 2023, Sunil and his wife now work in the bareja of other farmers. &quot;To run the household, I
have to work as labour. Working at bareja
has been easy for me because I have been cultivating paan for many
years,” he says. Sunil earns
Rs. 300, and his wife Karuna Devi Rs. 200 a day for working 8-10 hours. The
earnings help run the house for the family of six: a daughter aged 3, and three
sons ages one, five and seven.



In 2020,
covid-19 induced lockdowns also caused losses. “During the lockdown, everything-
from the market to vehicles were closed. I had 500 dholi [a bundle of 200 betel leaves] paan kept in the house. I could not sell it and it rotted,” he
recalls. 



Karuna Devi says, “I often tell him to leave
[betel leaf] cultivation.” However, Sunil brushes her concerns off saying,
“it is the legacy of our forefathers. How can we leave it and what will we do
even if we leave it?” This story is supported by a fellowship in memory of a trade unionist from Bihar who championed the struggles of marginalised people in the state.

Extreme weather plays havoc with Magahi paan

مگہی پان پر خراب موسم کا قہر

மகஹி வெற்றிலை விவசாயிகள்: மோசமான வானிலையை எதிர்கொள்கின்றனர்

ਮੌਸਮ ਦੀ ਮਾਰ ਨਾਲ਼ ਤਬਾਹ ਹੋਈ ਮਗਹੀ ਪੱਤਿਆਂ ਦੀ ਕਾਸ਼ਤ

ଖରାପ ପାଗ ଯୋଗୁ ବରବାଦ୍‌ ହେଉଛି ମଗହୀ ପାନ

തീവ്രമായ കാലാവസ്ഥ മഗാഹിയിലെ വെറ്റിലയെ തകർക്കുന്നു

ಪ್ರತಿಕೂಲ ಹವಾಗುಣದೊಂದಿಗೆ ಬಡಿದಾಡುತ್ತಿರುವ ಮಗಹಿ ಪಾನ್‌ ಬೆಳೆಗಾರರು

હવામાનના ઊગ્ર ફેરફારોથી તબાહ થતી મગહીના પાનના ખેતી

दगादार मऊसम के कहर झेलत मगही के पान किसान

খ্যাপাটে আবহাওয়ায় ছারখার মগহী পান

বিষম বতৰৰ কবলত মগহি পাণৰ খেতিয়ক

मौसम का कहर जारी, मगही पान पर पड़ता भारी

मौसम बेइमनवा ठगले बा मगही पनवा

Dheuri

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Extreme weather plays havoc with Magahi paan

Small farmers who cultivate the famed betel leaf in south Bihar say erratic and extreme weather is playing havoc with their crop. State compensation is negligible. Magahi paan leaf received a Geographical Indicator (GI) in 2017, but cultivators say that it has not helped and their woes remain

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