: Paddy cultivators in Upper Kuttanad, deemed as the rice bowl of Central Travancore, are going through a difficult phase for want of adequate government support in their efforts to sustain paddy farming, said Sam Eapen, district panchayat member and president of the Upper Kuttanad Nelkarshaka Samiti.
Environmental issues caused by unscientific land conversion, clogging of canals, and shortage of farm workers and dearth of modern machinery suited to paddy cultivation have already made farming a difficult proposition.
The much sought-after Rs. 1,840-crore Kuttanad Package proposed by the agronomist M.S. Swaminathan too has turned out to be a hype created by ruling political leaders.
Mr. Eapen told The Hindu that the Kuttanad package envisaged implementation of certain scientifically chalked out schemes with Centre-State financial partnership in 75:25 ratio. Implementation of the package in toto would have been a landmark as it would have boosted the State’s agro economy to a great extent, besides bringing many positive changes in the socio-economic spheres and its tremendous environment conservation potential, he said.
Mr Eapen, who himself is a farmer in the Upper Kuttanad village of Peringara, said the government should first take the farming community into confidence by initiating paddy farming promotion schemes well suited to the geographic conditions of Upper Kuttanad.
He said Dr. Swaminathan had prescribed certain innovative schemes to rejuvenate various canals and other streams that have been choked or destroyed in the unscientific development spree over the past few decades.
Bio-rice park
Mr. Eapen said the much-publicised bio-rice park for Kuttanad and Palakkad proposed by the State Government in 2013-14 had been a non-starter.
He said the proposal was to set up a bio-rice park at Pulikkeezhu, near Thiruvalla, where government land and soft water required for the project were available in plenty. But that project too turned out to be a hollow promise, disheartening the paddy farming community of Kuttanad, he said. +Mr. Eapen has called upon Agriculture Minister V.S. Sunilkumar and Water Resources Minister Mathew T. Thomas to take necessary initiatives for the sustenance and rejuvenation of paddy farming sector in Upper Kuttanad.
