2021, a year to forget for paddy farmers in Kerala

According to the Agriculture department, paddy cultivation in 42,464 hectares and paddy nursery in 4518.84 hectares were destroyed largely due to natural calamities in Kerala in 2021

A paddy farmer in Kuttanad.

Vipin Babu, a young paddy farmer from Champakulam in Kuttanad, has just completed sowing for the puncha (first crop) season. He was more than a month behind schedule in sowing seeds and now faces the risk of summer rain affecting the harvest in April-May.

The delay, he says, was the continuation of problems faced in the recently concluded second (additional) crop season. “I should have opted against growing paddy in the puncha season after suffering huge losses in the second crop season. The harvest of the second crop was delayed by around a month due to heavy downpours and floods that lashed the region in October-November. Though the crop was harvested by November-end, the yield was poor. The delay further affected the preparation of fields for the puncha season. Still, I took the risk and decided to cultivate paddy to recoup some of the losses. This is the only job I know,” says Mr. Babu.

The year 2021 has not been kind to paddy farmers in Kuttanad, Upper Kuttanad and other rice-growing regions of the State. From the farming calendar going for a toss due to a change in rainfall patterns, floods, soaring fertiliser prices to seeds failing to germinate, farmers say they would like to forget the past 12 months.

According to the Agriculture department, paddy cultivation in 42,464 hectares and paddy nursery in 4518.84 hectares were destroyed largely due to natural calamities in the State in 2021. The loss was estimated at ₹60 crore.

Alappuzha worst hit

Among the districts, Alappuzha suffered the worst, with paddy crop in 13,744 hectares destroyed during the period. It was followed by Thrissur where crops in 9,202 hectares was destroyed.

P. Indiradevi, professor and director of research (retired), Kerala Agricultural University, says paddy land should not be viewed as a mere production system as it delivers several ecosystem services such as groundwater recharge, flood control and so on.

“Climate change will continue to wreak havoc and impact agriculture. Farmers may not continue farming suffering losses. The important thing is to provide proper compensation to farmers based on realistic estimation of damage. If farmers are compensated, they won’t abandon rice cultivation, and fields will remain intact,” says Ms. Indiradevi.