Vishaka George

Noel Benno

Sharmila Joshi

Editor

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“People
laughed at us because they thought that this was too ambitious to achieve,” says  K.V Georgekutty. 

It’s
February and Kerala’s merciless summer is fast approaching. K.V. Georgekutty
and Babu Ulahannan are resting outside their makeshift hut. A breeze blows
sporadically, but the true comfort is the view ahead – 250 acres of parrot
green paddy fields separated by narrow canals in the Kollad region of Panachikkadu taluk in Pallom block of Kottayam district. White
birds emerge from the tall blades, black birds perch on wires across the
fields. 

Till
a few months ago, these lush pastures were empty stretches – land lying fallow
for over three decades. Babu and Georgekutty, along with Suresh Kumar, Shibu Kumar and
Varghese Joseph, transformed that. “The hardest part in this process is
preparing the land for cultivation. It’s gruelling work to clear the weeds,
treat the soil and construct the irrigation canals around the field. Compared
to regular fields, the effort to prepare fallow land is ten-fold [and requires
tractors and labourers],” Babu says. He and his co-cultivators from Changanassery, a town 20
kilometres from this field, are all experienced paddy farmers.

By cultivating paddy they are going against the tide in
Kerala. From 32 per cent in the 1980s – the highest share of gross cropped area
in the state – paddy covered only 6.63 per cent of Kerala’s total cropped area
in 2016-17, according to the state government’s Agricultural Statistics Report of 2016-2017.  And from 8.82 lakh hectares in 1974-75, the
area planted with paddy came down to 1.96 lakh hectares in 2015-16, says the Economic Review,
2016, of the State Planning Board. 

<a></a>The crop’s economic viability has steadily
dropped due to the growth of more profitable cash crops. Many farmlands in the state have also been turned into prime real
estate plots, leaving fewer work days for farmers skilled in paddy cultivation.
Cash crops now dominate the landscape – crops like rubber, pepper, coconut,
cardamom, tea and coffee constituted 62 per cent of Kerala’s total cultivated
area in 2015-16, according to the 2016  Economic Review.  Food crops like rice, tapioca, and pulses
accounted for just 10.21 per cent of the total cultivated area in the same
period.    

“Cash crops compete
for land in Kerala and paddy is a poor competitor. For a farmer, it is better
to opt for non-paddy cultivation,” says K.P. Kannan, chairman of the Laurie
Baker Centre for Habitat Studies, and former director of the Centre for
Development Studies (CDS), both in Thiruvananthapuram.

“As a result, the present production of rice is so inadequate
that it cannot meet even one-fifth of the state’s requirement,” says K.K.
Eswaran, a research associate at CDS. Production has declined from a peak of 13.76 lakh metric
tonnes in 1972-73, notes the Economic
Review,  to 5.49 lakh metric
tonnes in 2015-16.

Ten
years ago, the government – after being urged by several people’s movements and
activists across the state to protect wetlands and water resources – introduced
the Kerala Conservation of Paddy and Wetlands Act, 2008. Under this law, reclaiming or converting paddy
farms and wetlands is a non-bailable offence. In 2010, the government
accelerated its efforts to create ‘fallowless panchayats’  by giving farmers incentives to cultivate on
barren land. 

“In
the first year, the state government provides a subsidy of Rs. 30,000 per
hectare, of which 25,000 is to the farmers and 5,000 is for the owner of the
land as lease value,” says Georgekutty. Once the major task of readying the
soil is completed in the first year, this assistance “falls to 5,800 and 1,200,
respectively.”

“You
need to compensate them with an amount they would otherwise get from
alternative crops. Why must farmers alone take the social responsibility to
care for the environment and bear the burden of cost?” adds K.P. Kannan,
referring to the ecologically sustainable cultivation of paddy.

To
address fears of land usurpation, this policy also encourages local panchayats
to assemble farmers and owners of fallow lands, and act as a mediator to the
negotiations. This is done under the supervision of the local agricultural
officer. 

“After
the land reforms [the historic Kerala Land Reforms (Amendment) Act, 1969, which
ensured the rights of the tenants] leasing is illegal in the state, but
[panchayat-mediated] leasing for cultivation also has wide support,”’ says
Shebin Jacob, a member of the Kollad (Panachikkadu)  panchayat, who has promoted fallow land paddy
cultivation in this part of Kottayam. Local panchayat authorities go to the
landowners, he says, and assure them that “you will be the owner, but they will
cultivate on it. 

Right
now, however, the success is sporadic. “There are successful cases here and
there – in Arakulam, Idukki
and Kayal land [paddy
land in the Kuttanad region in
parts of Alappuzha and Kottayam that has UNESCO heritage status for its unique
below sea level farming] because a lot of people struggled to get it
done,” says Eswaran. 

As they did for the
field in Kollad, which speaks of the combined efforts
of local governments, communities, agricultural officers and farmers.  Across the district, in 2017-18, roughly 830 hectares
of  fallow land is  now covered by paddy, including the 250-acres
in Kollad, states the progress report for March of the agricultural office in
Kottayam.

“We
started to sow in November [2017] and
after 120 days of hard work, we are here today,” says Babu as he rows the vallam (canoe)
that is taking us around the fields. “If everything goes well, we estimate an
output of 22 quintals of rice [per acre] and a profit of 25,000 per acre.” 

Once
he and his co-farmers from Changanassery got the administrative clearance to
cultivate, they brought with them a known team of labourers. The state effort
to promote fallow land cultivation does not address a huge agricultural problem
in Kerala – a shortage of labourers. 

“Labour
is a big problem,” says Jose George, a farmer in Kalathukadavu village, in Meenachil taluk
of Kottayam, who is co-cultivating 10 acres of paddy. Local workers are paid a
daily wage of Rs. 850 (this rate varies across the district, based on
negotiations); migrant workers, mostly from Bihar and West Bengal, get Rs .650.
“Then there is the additional issue of local workers resisting the hiring of
migrant workers,” he says. 

To meet the demand
for labour, the panchayat often employs MGNREGA workers from within Kerala for
fallow land cultivation, at a daily wage of Rs. 260. &quot;The [MGNREGA]
workers are of great help to farmers in the initial stages of land preparation.
They also create micro-irrigation canals around the fields. This considerably
reduces the cost of cultivation ,&quot; says Rasia A. Salam, agricultural
officer, Kottayam. “Earlier, the panchayat was unable to offer even 30 days of
work, but now they get 50 to 60 days of work due to this new programme.&quot;

Well
before the government’s policies to promote paddy, the Kudumbashree collective too
has done a lot to increase the crop’s cultivation. Started in 1998, this is now a network of
4.3 million women (says the collective’s website). Most of them live below the poverty
line, and many are agricultural labourers with the skills to sow and harvest
paddy. Kudumbashree helped them group together and approach farmers or
landowners. The women work on the land themselves and get a cultivation
incentive from  Kudumbashree of Rs. 9,000
per hectare. The collective now cultivates paddy on 8,300 hectares across
Kerala, mainly in the central regions of Malappuram, Thrissur, Alappuzha and Kottayam
districts. They process and sell this paddy, branded under the name of their
regions, and have tie-ups with some retail outlets. “This adds to their
income,&quot; says Rahul Krishnan, advisor on farm livelihoods,
Kudumbashree.  

Meanwhile,
in Kallara village in  Vaikom block of  Kottayam , at a harvest festival on February
16, a group of  around 40 farmers and
their families, along with agricultural officers, panchayat members and the
media, have assembled to celebrate the collective transformation of 100 acres
of fallow land to golden rice fields. The atmosphere is jubilant as drums beat
and farmers are honoured with sashes and gifts. 

Sreedharan
Ambattumukil, one of the 40 farmers, happily holds the first bundle of cropped
paddy; his months of hard work have produced a healthy harvest. But, like other
farmers in Kallara, he is concerned about the procurement of this harvest.
“They [private contractors who collect the grain for the state government) will
take 100 kilos and not pay for 17 kilos. Last year though they cut just 4
kilos.” The contractors do this with all crops, not only fallow land paddy, and
this is a point of conflict for many farmers.  

In
some places, disagreements between farmers and the agents of mill owners over
the quality of the produce have also caused long delays from the time of the
harvest to its procurement. “This is very disadvantageous to the farmers,” says
Eswaran.

<a></a>Given the multiple uncertainties, what keeps the farmer going? “Farming
for us is a passion. We will do it even if we run into losses,” says
Sreedharan. “The farmer will never be prosperous in this country, but neither
can we be destroyed.”

Promoting paddy, reclaiming rice in Kerala

ਸਨਮੀ ਪਈ ਜ਼ਮੀਨ 'ਤੇ ਲਹਿਰਾਇਆ ਝੋਨਾ, ਕੇਰਲ ਅੰਦਰ ਚੌਲ਼ਾਂ ਦਾ ਖੱਪਾ ਗਿਆ ਪੂਰਿਆ

நெல் சாகுபடி - கேரளாவில் நெல் வளம் மீட்டெடுப்போம்

കേരളത്തിൽ നെല്‍കൃഷിയെ വീണ്ടെടുക്കുകയും പ്രോത്സാഹിപ്പിക്കുകയും ശ്രമിക്കുമ്പോൾ

କେରଳରେ ଫେରିଲା ଧାନ

ধান বুনে আবার চালে ফিরছে কেরালা

केरळमध्ये पुन्हा बहरली भातशेती

Kollad

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Promoting paddy, reclaiming rice in Kerala

Paddy cultivation in Kerala has steadily shrunk due to many factors, including the growth of cash crops. But local governments and communities are collectively renewing the crop on land lying fallow for decades

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