A recent study on the climate change and its impact in the Cauvery delta districts of Tamil Nadu reveals a disturbing trend of shrinking paddy coverage, loss of kuruvai as a season, samba crop at the mercy of monsoon and importantly agricultural concerns turning more intense than ever before. Shocked at the findings, agriculture activists have called for the launch of a “Save Delta Movement”.
This comes out in the study “Combating Climate Change: Vulnerability of Cauvery Delta, Food Security and Livelihood Resilience” by Prof. S. Janakarajan of the Madras Institute of Development Studies and covers Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, and a part of Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu and Karaikal region of Puducherry Union Territory. The project, funded by the Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi, commenced 20 months ago and is scheduled for completion by December 2016.
Sharing the findings of his research with The Hindu during a mid-term review and shared learning dialogue workshop here on Tuesday, Prof. Janakarajan pointed out that the area under paddy in the delta had shrunk alarmingly even as kuruvai as a paddy season was under threat. Samba was now the only cropping season in areas that did not depend on groundwater for irrigation and that exposed it to the vagaries of nature leaving samba paddy at the mercy of the monsoon depending on the water release from upstream.
On the other hand crops such as cotton, pulses, sugarcane, banana, and vegetables have made significant inroads into the delta crop culture at the expense of paddy.
On the human resources, Prof. Janakarajan says that technology has helped farmers overcome labour scarcity especially during peak manpower demand season but that is the only silver lining in an otherwise gloomy situation.
Storage and marketing facilities are unscientific while industrial and domestic pollution levels have risen high impacting agricultural prospects, the research reveals.
While agriculture in the tail-end areas have become a gamble because of salinity, flooding, scarcity of water, and so on, the overall head and tail-end area concerns have become more intense now in the past quarter of a century, Prof. Janakarajan says.
The trends can be attributed to climate change impact and call for immediate and sustainable corrective measures.
Prof. Janakarajan and his team made specific in-depth field work in four typologically unique villages in Voimedu in Nagappatinam district where salinity and seawater flooding affected even one cropping, Raghunathapuram in Tiruvarur district where two or even three cropping are achieved with abundant groundwater potential, Kandamangalam where one crop was achieved while the second was a gamble as groundwater turns brackish beyond 150 feet and Budalur in Thanjavur district which, situated between two rivers, is entirely dependant on surface water but where only brackish water is available up to 45 feet beyond which hard indigenous rock blocks further access.
Speaking at the workshop, Tamil Cauvery Delta Farmers' Welfare Association general secretary Mannargudi S. Ranganathan along with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Central Committee member and MLA S. Balakrishnan said the findings prophesied a grim future for the delta and agreed that it called for a “Save Delta Movement”.
They said delta districts contributed a substantial portion of the State’s foodgrains requirement and any threat to the cropping pattern would destabilise the food security besides affecting the livelihood resources of the thousands of farmers and farm workers.
