Kerala - Kochi   

Farmers opting out of Pokkali cultivation

Photo: K.K. Mustafah

SHRINKING FIELDS: A view of the Pokkali paddy fields at Pizhala, an island in the Kochi backwaters. —

KOCHI: As Kuttanad rice farmers battle with an acute shortage of harvesting hands and the government scrambles for harvesting machines outside the State, a similar problem is quietly hastening the end of the unique, centuries-old Pokkali rice cultivation.

“Finding workers for harvesting the crop on time is the biggest problem I face,” a Pokkali rice farmer on the Vypeen island in Ernakulam district said. “Each time the harvesting season draws close, I have to hunt for harvesters and the tension kills me.” Now that the Pokkali rice season begins in the State’s central coastal region next week, this farmer is not going to cultivate his field. “I am quitting farming,” he said in disgust. Real estate agents have been persuading him to sell his farmlands at prices that were once unimaginable for the water-logged fields.

He will be among dozens of Pokkali rice farmers who will quit farming forever this season, because of the shortage of farmhands. Labour shortage and high cost of farming on the one hand and the offer of high price by the land sharks on the other, most farmers succumb to the sell-off lure. The outcome: farmlands are shrinking at an alarming rate every year and the fully-organic Pokkali cultivation is being pushed out of existence.

In the saline, water-logged Pokkali farmlands, rice and prawns are farmed alternatively—rice is grown for half of the year and for the rest of the year the farmers carry out prawn breeding. There is a symbiotic relationship between rice and prawns – rice plants get their nutrients from the leftover of the prawns and, the prawns in turn, feed on the stalks and decaying remnants of the rice crop. No chemical fertilisers are used, neither are insecticides and pesticides.

The usual ploughing and transplantation are not required for Pokkali. In fact, the manpower required, except for harvesting, is minimal.

However, for harvesting, which is very taxing, the labour demand is very high. The stalks have to be cut in knee-deep water and the ground is unstable and slushy. The stalks are exceptionally tall and they often bend over and lie in water. Because of the toughness of the job, farmhands usually hate to go for harvesting work.

Zeenath Akbar, former secretary of the North Paravur-based Pokkali Land Development Agency, pointed out that a couple of years ago, harvesters were given an incentive of Rs.20 a day by the government, but this was dropped later. She said special harvesting machines that can stand the water-logged, unstable farmlands would have to be used. Kamco (Kerala Agricultural Machines Corporation) had one time unsuccessfully tried its hands at developing such a machine. In her view, Pokkali cultivation can be saved only if the labour shortage is addressed.

There used to be some 25,000 hectares of Pokkali farmlands in the coastal region of Ernakulam, Thrissur and Alappuzha districts. Statistics differ, but field reports say Pokkali is grown now in less than 5,000 hectares.

Encouraging Pokkali farmers to stick to cultivation, with incentives and support, could be part of the solution to the State’s food shortage.

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