Thazhava: Barren land turns paddy field

KOLLAM: The Thazhava grama panchayat in the district has sown the seeds of a green revolution in the barren paddy fields. The local bodies and the farmers have jointly converted a  water-logged land into fertile paddy fields of some 650 acres in the panchayat. This is the victory of Thazhava Thodiyoor Vattakkayal integral paddy development project that has become a model for such joint ventures in agriculture across the state while individual farming has a bad track record these days. The harvesting of the paddy cultivated with the aid of Harita Keralam Mission, agriculture department, Onattukara development agency, land owners and farmers started at the Pavumba end of the field on Tuesday.

The Thazhava-Thodiyoor-Vattakkayal padasekharam is a collection of 125 individual properties which was leased by the government for five years.

The Thazhava - Thodiyoor - Vattakkayal padasekharam is a collection of 125 individual properties which was leased by the government for five years. The agriculture department allotted Rs. 30,000 per hectare for sowing paddy from which the land owner got Rs. 25,000 and the farmer Rs. 5,000. The Thazhava panchayat granted Rs. 8 lakh  to purchase the paddy seeds. A lease agreement was also  made so that the land owner will get Rs. 3,000, Rs. 5,000, Rs. 7,000, and Rs. 9,000 during the second, third, fourth and fifth consecutive years respectively as the profit share. The sowing of Uma and Kanchana varities of paddy seeds was done from January 11 to 20. A hectare of paddy field has a yield of nearly 8 tonnes.

 

The Vattakkayal padasekharam spanning across Pavumba to Thodiyoor remained barren for over the last ten years as the field was permanently inundated with the water from Pallikkalar River. "An artificial canal constructed in the middle of the field carried water from the paddy field back to the river. Several attempts to make the land cultivable were sabotaged as the bunds along the sides of the canal, which prevent river water from entering the field, burst due to excessive water pressure washing out the saplings. We overcame this challenge by designing a master plan," Thazhava panchayat president S. Sreelatha told DC.

The master plan prevented the flooding of fields by water from Pallikkalar river mostly due to the breakage of bunds which has been identified as the major challenge in turning the water-logged area into a cultivable land. After collecting information from the traditional farmers on the techniques of farming in the area, the panchayat sourced funds from the Haritha Keralam Mission, grama panchayat and local development fund by R. Ramachandran, MLA, to revive paddy field with a total estimate of Rs. 70 lakh.

According to the action plan, special arrangements like in the 'Kuttanad' farming model, where land lies below sea level, were made to tackle the issue of bunds and flooding. The arrangement includes enforcing the bunds on either side  of the canal to drain out the water through the canal. For this, high-performance water pumps of 60 hp and 40 hp were installed along the canal to set up the 'Pettiyum Parayum,' the indigenous technology for irrigation in the paddy fields of Kuttanad. A transformer was also installed to supply sufficient power to operate the mechanism using the MLA fund. A padasekhara samithi was formed to implement the project with the panchayat president S. Sreelatha as the president and K.K. Krishnakumar,  panchayat member, as convener. The Thazhava Thodiyoor Vattakkayal integral paddy development project aims at cultivating paddy in 1000 acres and to brand the rice in the near future.