Pokkali
rice is grown only in the coastal areas of Ernakulam, Thrissur and
Alappuzha districts in Kerala (Photo: P N Vijayakumar)
Harvest of pokkali rice in Kerala’s Ezhupunna village, which began on
October 27 and lasted three weeks, was nothing short of a local event.
After all, the indigenous, saline and flood-resistant rice variety was
cultivated in the village after 25 years. People in the village had to
wage a long battle to be able to cultivate the crop once again.
The 56-hectare (ha) plot where farming was restarted was part of a
field where pokkali rice was cultivated traditionally. But for over 25
years, it had been under the control of powerful contractors who take
land on lease from local farmers for practising prawn farming round
the year.
The protests started in 2009 by a group of 28 people from the
village. None of them is a farmer owning paddy fields. “But
round-the-year prawn farming affected many of us,” says Benny Kalathil,
who works in a motor workshop and is an activist with the Pokkali
Samrakshana Samara Samiti, the group leading the agitations. “This is a
historical victory,” he says.
The round-the-year prawn culture in coastal areas causes high
salinity in the soil, groundwater and air. Saline winds make bricks in
walls brittle and they start to crumble. It also adversely affects
homestead farming, water quality in open wells and livelihoods of
agriculture labourers and inland fisherfolk, say the activists.
Unique farming practice
Pokkali rice is grown in the coastal areas of Alappuzha, Ernakulam
and Thrissur districts in Kerala. In this unique organic farming
practice, one season of rice is alternated with another season of prawn
culture. No chemical fertiliser, manure or pesticide is used in the
process. Preparations for cultivation starts in mid April. Seeds are
sown in early June at the onset of the southwest monsoon and the crop
harvested in early November. The sowing, transplanting and harvesting
take place when the salinity of water in the fields is at the lowest.
From mid-November to mid-April, when the salinity is high, prawn farming
takes over.
“The southwest monsoon and tidal action in the Arabian Sea are the
most critical factors in the pokkali farming system,” says V Sreekumar,
scientist with the Kerala Agriculture University’s Rice Research Station
at Vyttila in Ernakulam. “The high salinity of waterlogged fields
caused by the uptides is washed off during the heavy southwest monsoon.
This wetland ecosystem is unique and fragile,” he says.
In view of the uniqueness of the system, pokkali farmers have
received Geographical Indication certificate in 2009 and the central
government’s Plant Genome Saviour Community award 2011.
Pokkali fields in these three districts have shrunk from 24,000 ha to
5,000 ha in the past two decades, says a state government committee
headed by B Madhusoodana Kurup, vice-chancellor, Kerala University of
Fisheries and Ocean Studies. The committee was appointed last year to
suggest measures to sustain the rice-prawn farming system. However, out
of the 5,000 ha of pokkali fields currently only 1,000 ha are being used
for rice farming, says the committee. Main reasons for the shrinkage
are shortage of farmers, fields being used for purposes other than
farming and lack of policies for sustaining the unique system.
Protests gather momentum
Revival of the pokkali farming practice was not a concern of the
group when it started the movement. “Our primary concern was the damage
our houses suffered from round-the-year prawn farming,” says Verghese K
A, another activist. “We have to repair our houses frequently and spend
about Rs 10,000 every year,” he adds.
When their complaints to government departments and local
administrative bodies went unheeded, they formed a residence association
and joined hands with other groups fighting for similar causes. But the
movement changed course in 2011 when Francis Kalathunkal, engineering
professor at K R Gouriyamma College of Engineering for Women, Thuravur,
and convener of the Pokkali Protection Forum in the adjoining Ernakulam
district joined them. “We felt the movement should address conservation
issues rather than fighting against individuals,” says Kalathunkal. “Our
perspectives broadened when we started studying new aspects of pokkali
farming and the fragile coastal ecosystems,” says Benny.
Uphill task
Restoring pokkali farming was not easy. “The nexus between
politicians and big contractors was very strong. They even threatened
our lives,” says Benny.
But nothing deterred the group. In April this year, N Padmakumar, the
new district collector, responded to their appeals and held rounds of
sittings with agriculture and fisheries officers, land owners, prawn
growers and people’s representatives. In one such meeting in May, the
prawn lobby agreed to lease out land and challenged the activists to
prove the viability of pokkali farming.
The protesters accepted the challenge and were handed over the fields
at the end of May, when the monsoon had already started. There was no
time to prepare the fields. To pump out the saline water, a 50
horsepower motor and electricity connections were needed. “The prawn
lobby even influenced the Kerala State Electricity Board to not give us
power connection,” says Verghese. They got the connection on June 26,
“just because the collector was to inaugurate sowing of seeds the
following day”, recalls Kalathunkal.
The next hurdle was seeds. No one in the village had them. The local
Krishi Bhavan which had promised to supply seeds failed to do so.
However, the activists managed to buy 4.5 tonnes of pokkali seeds from a
women’s cooperative for Rs 25/kg. The group managed to bring in
students from two nearby colleges to help in the entire process. “It was
fun and a learning experience for them,” says Kalathunkal.
Raising fund
To raise money, the group decided to issuing bonds. The value of
each bond was kept at Rs 1,000. “It’s just an informal arrangement in
which friends and well-wishers can extend a helping hand,” says
Kalathunkal. The bond holders will be paid back their money without
interest after six months or they can take pokkali rice worth their
investment in lieu of money. So far 120 people have bought the bonds and
the committee has raised Rs 3 lakh.
The activists have spent Rs 8.5 lakh on farming and harvesting. The
state government has allocated Rs 27 lakh for encouraging cultivation of
organic varieties of rice such as pokkali and njavara in this year’s
budget. The Pokkali Samrakshana Samara Samiti has received Rs 1 lakh
from the government. According to Kalathunkal, much of the government
funds meant for unique rice varieties remain unspent.
This year’s harvest is only 10 tonnes. “But we will not incur loss
since the government offers an incentive of Rs 30,000 a hectare for
cultivating fallow rice fields,” says Kalthungal. The paddy will be
processed and sold at Rs 50 a kg in the market. Since pokkali is
organic, it has a good demand, say activists.
The group can take forward their experiment only if they get the land
on lease in the coming years too. “But we are not sure about this,”
says Kalathunkal. To sustain the pokkali farming, the government should
issue licence for prawn farming only if rice is cultivated in one
season. “Being an organic rice variety, pokkali will not get any
subsidies by the government. So the government should give a support
price of Rs 50 per kg,” says Benny. At present, the support price for
paddy is Rs 17/kg.
To tide over seed scarcity, pokkali should be cultivated as the
second or third crop in other parts of the state and the Kerala Seed
Authority should set up a pokkali seed bank, says Sreekumar. “Many have
mistaken pokkali as a rice variety that grows only in saline water. It
will very well grow in other regions too,” he adds.
The activists have pinned their hopes on the expert committee’s
recommendations urging the state government to declare the pokkali
villages as Heritage Villages and find them a place among the Global
Heritage Village.
