Closure of the Kattampally irrigation project regulator to check tidal influx is likely to affect farmer groups undertaking the State government-supported scheme for promotion of paddy-cum-shrimp farming in the brackish water areas ( Kaipad ) adjoining the Kattampally river here. The Fisheries Department launched the scheme in 2009-10 after the government decided to open the regulator to revive the traditional Kaipad paddy farming. It had been abandoned by farmers owing to hardening of the soil following the commissioning of the regulator in 1966.
The scheme, implemented initially through the Fish Farmers Development Agency here and financially supported by the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, has continued under the Agency for Development of Aquaculture, Kerala (ADAK) from 2012-13 under the State Plan scheme. Officials of the ADAK said every year, nearly 90 hectares of fallow Kaipad fields, mainly in the Kattampally river basin here, was revived for the paddy-cum-shrimp farming. They said that nearly 300 ha of Kaipad land had been revived in the Kattampally area.
The Kaipad fields of north Kerala form a unique agricultural system similar to Pokkali of central Kerala as paddy and fish farming are done in tidal mudflats. Kaipad farmers said no fertilizer was used for Kaipad farming.
“The prevention of tidal flow by closing the regulators for longer periods in a year will be detrimental to the paddy-cum-shrimp farming being revived in the area,” Dineshan Cheruvat, Joint Director of Fisheries (North Zone), told The Hindu . Dr. Cheruvat, former implementing officer of the scheme for reviving Kaipad farming, said it would also create adverse soil and water conditions.
The farmers could continue the traditional farming in future only if the tidal flow to the Kaipad lands was restored.
The concerns of freshwater paddy cultivators in areas adjoining the Kaipad fields about salinity intrusion are the primary reason for the district administration ordering the closure of the regulators. Dr. Cheruvat said the brackish water intrusion into those lands could be checked by forming inner peripheral bunds and sluices.
Kattampally regulator to be closed to check tidal influx.
