Billing for your organic store in Bihar
The makhana from one farmer, the jaggery from another, and the family's monthly basket, each on its own line.
Tools for a counter of sacks, jars and small packets
Bills on your phone
A bill by weight with the quarter-kilo bag, the half and the whole each at its own rate, and the lot's name on the line.
Low stock warnings
A warning when the raw makhana for roasting or the jaggery for the festival is nearly out, with the kilos still in the sack.
Online orders
Makhana, sattu and jaggery on your own online shop, so a family can order a hamper for a relative and collect it packed.
Daily reports
Kilos of each makhana size sold on each day of Chhath week, set against the days after it, so the next lot you ask the farmer for follows the sizes that went.
Orders to suppliers
Write the next order to the farmer who grows your makhana, with the sacks you still have beside it.
Makhana in three sizes, sacks open all day and a hamper for relatives far away
Makhana comes in sizes, and the big puffs cost more
Makhana is sold by size: the large, even puffs fetch a higher price than the small or broken ones. Lots from different farmers arrive mixed in the same sacks, and a customer who pays for the big ones wants the big ones. You sort by eye in the morning rush, and in the evening the heap of the dearest grade is somehow smaller than the money says.
Weighing out all day from open sacks
Most of the goods sit in open sacks: dried red chillies, pulses, flour, jaggery. All day you scoop, weigh and tie them into small bags of a quarter, a half or a whole kilo, with one hand on the scale and a queue at the door. When the sack is empty you are surprised, and when it is not you do not know how much is in it.
A hamper for relatives in another city, packed from five sacks
Before Chhath and Diwali, families pack makhana, jaggery and dry fruit to send to relatives who live in other cities. You weigh from five sacks into one box, a little of each, and the family wants a total before the courier comes. The bill is made at the counter by adding it in your head, and the box that leaves is not the box that was billed.
Where the grain, the makhana and the sweets of an organic shelf grow
An organic shelf in Bihar carries what these districts are known for, and the families who buy it know the names.
- Darbhanga is famous for its trade in fish, mango and makhana.
- Gaya's own festival sweet is tilkut, roasted sesame seeds and jaggery, and it is the district's product on the One District One Product list.
- In East Champaran, agriculture is the main income, rice and sugar cane are major crops, and fishery is a popular small industry.
- Muzaffarpur farmers grow GI-certified Shahi Litchi, and a first air export of it left for the UK in May 2021.
- Patna is an old farm hub whose exports include grain, sugarcane, sesame and medium-grained Patna rice.
A makhana grade, a jaggery block and a hamper, each kept apart
Each size of makhana as its own item, with the farmer's name
Add makhana as one item for each size, and put the farmer's name and the month in the name of the item. The bill shows which grade was sold, so a customer who pays for the large puffs reads it on the slip, and you see which size is moving and which is sitting.
Makhana roasted in the morning, sold in packets by evening
Roast a batch of makhana in the morning and sell it in packets. Make the packet an item, add its count, and lower the raw makhana by the kilos you roasted. The day's list then shows the packets sold and the raw kilos still in the sack, so the roasting of tomorrow is decided from both.
The hamper billed line by line, from five sacks to one box
Make the hamper as one bill with a line for each thing in the box: so many grams of makhana, so much jaggery, so much dry fruit. The count of every sack comes down by what went in, and the family reads the slip before the box is sealed.
Questions from organic stores in Bihar
A customer asks where my makhana grew. How do I show it?
Add each lot as its own item and put the farmer's name and the month in the item's name. It shows on the bill, so the customer who asks where the makhana grew reads the farmer's name and the month off the slip in her hand.
I roast makhana in the morning and sell it in packets. How do I keep the count?
Note the kilos of raw makhana you roast each morning. By evening the packets sold show how much of that roast is gone, and the shelf shows what tomorrow starts with.
Some makhana breaks in the sack. Can I still sell it?
Yes. Make Broken makhana an item with its own rate and its own count. It goes on the same bill as the whole puffs.
The Ganga corridor and the farmers behind an organic shelf
Bihar's government planned an organic farming corridor along the Ganga through 13 districts, from Buxar to Bhagalpur, with Rs 155 crore sanctioned in 2020. An organic store in those districts is close to the farmers whom the plan was written for.
Bihar's organic farmers along the Ganga struggle with low yield, limited selling avenues and a lack of effective pest management, Mongabay India reported in 2022. A shop that buys from them directly is one of the selling avenues they are short of.