Farmer's Weekly (South Africa)

India’s ‘superfood’ from water lily

Following the tradition of his father and grandfathe­r, Phool Dev Shahni once earned a living diving into 24m-deep muddy ponds.

In those murky depths, he collected seeds from a water lily known as euryale ferox, commonly called prickly water lily, makhanas, fox nuts, or lotus seeds. These seeds, valued for their high levels of B vitamins, protein and fibre, are often dubbed a ‘superfood’.

Makhanas are popular snacks and are used in various dishes, like the milk pudding

and can be ground into flour. In Bihar, a north-eastern Indian state where Shahni lives, 90% of the world’s makhana is produced.

Though the plant’s leaves float on the water’s surface, the seeds form underwater in pods, making collection arduous.

“As we dive, mud gets into our ears, eyes, noses and mouths. Many of us suffer from skin issues. The plant’s thorns also cut us during seed harvesting,” Shahni explained.

Recently, farmers have shifted to cultivatin­g the plants in fields with shallower water. Harvesting in water less than half a metre deep allows Shahni to double his daily earnings. –

SICILY

A massive freshwater reserve has been discovered hidden beneath Sicily’s Hyblaean Mountains. The extensive reserve is believed to contain around 17 billion metres-cubed of water and is between 700m and 2 500m below the surface.

It could also be the key to solving Sicily’s ongoing drought.

The reserve was discovered by a team of researcher­s from the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanolog­y and the universiti­es of Malta and Roma Tre, who published their research in November 2023.

CHINA

China’s agricultur­e sector must improve its capacity for disaster prevention and mitigation, Vice Premier Liu Guozhong said in mid-August, according to the Xinhua News Agency. Liu also vowed to pledge more financial support for the restoratio­n of output after flooding. He called for strengthen­ing the monitoring of rainfall conditions to provide early warnings and enhancing defence capabiliti­es against water and drought disasters in major water conservanc­y projects in China’s northeaste­rn provinces. –