His answers are as simple as the person he is: a 95-year-old man in white shirt and dhoti, healthy for his age, holding an umbrella to shade himself from the scorching sun.
But behind the simplicity is the down-to-earth determination of the farmer he is. “There were good offers since it was one of choicest piece of land, especially from tourism’s point of view. But this was one piece which I bought nearly half a century ago for paddy cultivation,” he says about the offers he received from the corporate interests who wanted to take over the 404-acre Metran Kayal for tourism purpose.
When the polder goes in for the harvest festival on Saturday, the name of M.K. Karunakaran, the paddy farmer who made a valiant stand against the corporate pressures, is synonymous with the fight for paddy cultivation.
Lucrative offers
According to his grandson Bitu, with whom he is living now at Chengalam, a few km away from the Kayal, the family had been continuously cultivating the polder until eight years ago. “They were offering unprecedentedly high price and most of the farmers gave in to the pressure. We too were offered a good price but grandfather did not budge,” he said. Even now, the agents for the corporate approach them with good offers. “Earlier, there was an element of pressure, which is missing now,” he adds.
Rony Varghese, agriculture officer in charge of paddy cultivation at the Kayal says: “He is a paddy farmer in the classical mould. He comes here almost every day. Paddy is his life.”
Mr. Karunakaran’s stand will be vindicated on Saturday when Agriculture Minister V.S. Sunil Kumar inaugurates the harvest festival. The sowing of seeds had begun on November 10 last. First it was 24 acres, including the five-acre paddy field owned by Mr. Karunakaran.
Concerted efforts
But soon it spread like wildfire with various forums chipping in with their efforts to resume paddy cultivation in the polder held by the corporate. All together, 315 acres out of the 404 acres are now under paddy cultivation and ready for harvest. Harvesting at the polder will be taken up in a phased manner.
In spite of such valiant fights on the part of individual farmers and support from authorities, many are not very clear about the future of paddy at the polder. Except the 24 acres held by individual farmers, the entire area under paddy belongs to the corporate house and this could lead to legal battles.
But people like Binu Kottayam, environmental activist, are happy and hopeful: The Metran Kayal follows the Aranmula model. The farmers are happy and confident.
And they have a determined leadership in the Agriculture Minister,” he said. However, the significance of resumption of cultivation in Metran Kayal is the fact that the cultivation took place within eight years. Had it been lying fallow for another two years, the paddy field could have received exemption under the Conservation of Paddy and Wetland Act.
