‘Jowar is king!’

The air is filled with smoke from cooking fires and the aroma of roasting jowar. A hurda celebration is on! Freshly harvested jowar, known as hurda, is a popular delicacy, and farmers have brought their crop and set up stalls across villages and towns in Marathwada.

“People wait eagerly for it,” says Suryakant Maind, a jowar farmer from Londhyachiwadi. He plants jowar varieties of bedri and maldandi on his five acres in Jalna district. The family harvest half the crop in December while it is still tender, and the remaining is harvested in February or March, once the grain matures.

Armed with his carefully harvested tender jowar crop (hurda), Maind heads to Jalna city. The 55-year-old farmer says he sells about 40 kilograms of the tender jowar each season, at Rs. 150 a kilo.

Preparing hurda at the stalls is a slow, deliberate process and women play a big role. The tender jowar stalks are roasted in a pit using dried jowar stalks from earlier harvests. Long wooden sticks are used to turn the bundles and roast them evenly. Timing is key. “Remove it too soon, and it stays raw; leave it too long, and it dries up,” explains Bhima Nana Dakhane, a 45-year-old farmer from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (formerly Aurangabad) district.

Once roasted, women rub the kernels between their palms to remove the husk. Then begins the cooking. “From morning till late evening, I am in the kitchen with the other women,” says Savita Dakhane. “We take pride in serving something that comes directly from the fields.”

Maharashtra is the biggest cultivator of jowar – 36 per cent of India’s total jowar production of 4.8 million tonnes (2020-21), came from this state. But today, fewer farmers in the state are growing jowar – the area under the crop in the state fell from 2.8 million hectares in 2013-14 to 1.6 million hectares in 2018-19, says a PIB release.

Unable to rely on rain, farmers in the region use borewells and drip irrigation; there is no canal in Maind’s village. He says in recent years, low rainfall has led to borewells running dry in the summer. He also cultivates soybean, pulses and wheat on his land, and alongside he grows vegetables throughout the year.

Farmers like Shewale say sales have fallen, but Aurangabad district still has many popular spots such as Nanachiwadi (Chikhalthana village), Khatod (Kachner village), Mahakal (Taherpur village), and Devgiri (Dhorkin village), that continue to draw thousands in the season.

People come from across Maharashtra and beyond – on the outskirts of Aurangabad city, near Jalna Road, farmers and their families mill around under green tent covers, chatting and catching up as young children play in the open spaces.

The warm green grains are served with jaggery, curd, and chutneys. “It’s hard work, but when guests praise the food, it feels worth it,” adds Savita. The 35-year-old smiles as she describes how the hurda party also brings their extended family together: “even the younger girls in our home help out – they’re learning everything from us, just like we learned from our mothers.”

Hurda is served with other traditional Maharashtrian delicacies like thalipeeth made from bhajanee flour (a mix of roasted jowar, chana dal, and hurda), kothimbir vadi (fresh coriander and split chickpea flour), and spicy groundnut chutney. “Jaggery brings out its sweetness. And chutneys with garlic or peanuts give it a kick. Curd adds richness and cools the palate,” says Urwa Amrutkar, a visitor at the Nanachiwadi party.

For many people in the region, this seasonal grain is both food and remedy. “It keeps the body warm and helps with digestion,” says Suryakant Maind.

Hurda time is also good for extra wage work. Sunita Tangde saves up her winter earnings to manage expenses for the rest of the year. “I work for only these three months,” says the 26-year-old. Married at 16, the hurda season is a livelihood lifeline. She works for her father, farmer Dnyaneshwar Shewale who hosts hurda gatherings at a rented property in Chikalthana village in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district.

Shewale says, “there are too many new hurda centers now so the crowd is getting divided.” Costs are rising too. “Hurda used to cost us 90-100 rupees a kilo, and now it’s 150-160 rupees. Even the upli [dried cow dung cakes] used as fuel for roasting are 2.50 to 3 rupees each, and we need 15 uple just to roast one kilo of hurda.”

Even so, there is no sign of hurda parties slowing down. In her sixties, Alka Amrutkar says hurda celebrations connect her to her roots in Vidarbha where people roast green wheat instead of jowar. “In Marathwada, jowar is king,” she laughs. “But wherever you go, the idea is the same – a celebration of the harvest, a gathering of loved ones.”