Farming used to be an integral part of life for the Parayil family of Olavaipu, a village having vast stretches of Pokkali farmlands in Cherthala.
Over the years, the Pokkali fields in the possession of the family remained fallow owing to cost overruns and scarcity of labour. But a member of the family, P.K. Hormis Tharakan, former chief of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), is all set to revive farming in his ancestral land.
Mr. Tharakan launched farming in five hectares of land at his native place in Thaikkattussery grama panchayat. A distinguished IPS officer of the 1968 batch, Mr.Tharakan feels truly at home while devoting his attention to farming, after long years of strenuous job as a top man in the echelons of security, having served in the capacity of Director General of Police of Kerala, chief of RAW and adviser to the Governor of Karnataka.
“It was almost 20 years ago that farming had been taken up in the family’s paddy fields there,” Mr. Tharakan told The Hindu. He sowed paddy seeds in the fields with the assistance of farm labour a week ago and is eager to see the crop coming up.
He is happy that the government is extending support to revive farming. His farm field will get help from the Agency for Development of Aquaculture Kerala (ADAK), which is promoting the novel scheme ‘oru nellum, oru meenum’ (one paddy, one fish).
The scheme envisages farming paddy and fish in successive crop seasons. Up to 80 per cent cost on infrastructure such as strengthening of bunds and cultivation of mangroves is aided by the government agency under the National Adaptation Fund on Climate Change.
Mr.Tharakan is concerned at the scarcity of farm labour.
“The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme needs to be reoriented to ensure that farming initiatives are not deprived of labour. A social audit needs to be conducted on the issue,” he says. While the prevailing scheme permits deployment of labour for works such as removal of weeds and building up of bunds, availability of labour for other works such as transplantation is necessary to ensure success.
