The newly elected Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in Kerala has given indications about its resolve to revive paddy cultivation in the State. But the path ahead is not likely to be an easy one.

In June 2016, the State Agriculture Minister V. S. Sunilkumar announced that the government would seek to resume paddy cultivation in plots of land that had earlier been identified for the Aranmula airport project in Pathanamthitta district and the Methran Kayal eco-tourism project in Kottayam district.

Activists have been raising serious concerns about the environmental impacts of these projects, which involved the reclamation of paddy fields or wetlands. In March this year, the United Democratic Front (UDF) government’s decision to allow the reclamation of 378 acres of Methran Kayal for the eco-tourism project turned controversial. The Kerala High Court, acting on a plea filed by N. K. Alexander, a paddy cultivator who owns land in this area, ordered a stay on the government order. It is in this context that the new government has announced its plan to restart paddy cultivation in this region.

More details are available in this article by T. K. Devasia here.

Methran Kayal (or Seminary Lake), spread over 430 acres in Kumarakom village, is part of Kuttanad, one of the two major rice-producing regions of Kerala (the other major rice producing region in Kerala is in Palakkad district). Kuttanad is spread across the districts of Alappuzha, Kottayam and Pathanamthitta. From the beginning of the 19th century, rice in Kuttanad has been cultivated on land reclaimed from the Vembanad Lake.

The family of the Maharaja of Travancore gifted the Methran Kayal to the Malankara Orthodox Church before Independence. The Church, in turn, handed over this area to farmers who cultivated rice there until 2006.

Paddy cultivation in Metran Kayal had to be halted in the mid-2000s following flooding from the Vembanad Lake. Farmers’ demands for the construction of a retention wall to prevent flooding from the lake went unheeded. It was around this time that a real estate group titled Rakindo Developers floated a proposal to build the “Rakindo Kumarakom Resort” (consisting of luxury hotels, an international convention centre, luxury cottages, and a golf course) in this region. The private developer offered high prices, and many farmers offered to sell their land. The government gave Rakindo permission to develop the Methran Kayal project on the grounds that the land had been lying uncultivated.

Local people rue the fact that the Methran Kayal has been lying uncultivated for the past ten years or so. Old-timers who cultivate rice claim that they used to get high yields from the Methran Kayal. Till today, fishing in the backwaters provides a source of income to many in the locality.

Decline of Paddy Cultivation in Kerala

What has happened in Metran Kayal is symptomatic of the many problems that have affected rice cultivation in Kerala over the past few years. Although rice is the staple food of the people of Kerala, paddy cultivation in the State has witnessed a steady decline since the 1980s. The area under rice cultivation in Kerala fell from 8,50,000 hectares in 1980–81 to 5,60,000 hectares in 1990–91, 3,20,000 hectares in 2001–02, and to 2,29,000 hectares in 2007–08. Production of rice in the State declined equally sharply: from 1, 271,000 tonnes in 1980-81 to 529,000 tonnes in 2007-08 (see the Figure below).

Paddy cultivation in Kerala revived marginally between 2007–08 and 2009–10. However, the downward trend resumed from 2010-11 onwards. In 2014-15, the area under paddy cultivation in the State was only 198,160 hectares and the production of rice was 562,100 tonnes (see the Figure below).

The continued decline in paddy cultivation raises serious concerns for Kerala’s economy and ecology. Foodgrain produced in Kerala accounts for only a small share of the total consumption of food grains in the State (15 per cent only as per the data from Government of Kerala’s Economic Review 2010). Kerala is thus dependent on import of foodgrain from other States, including Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Bihar, to meet its consumption needs.

Paddy fields are a vital part of Kerala’s environment and ecological systems. They provide natural drainage paths for floodwater, conserve groundwater, and are crucial for the preservation of a rich variety of flora and fauna. Farmers alternate paddy cultivation with prawn or fish farming in several regions of Kerala — such as in the pokkali (a saline-tolerant rice variety) fields in the Kochi area.

The factors that led to the long-run decline of paddy cultivation in Kerala include the seasonal shortage of agricultural workers in the State and their relatively high wages. The productivity of rice cultivation in Kerala is relatively low. In 2014–15, the yield of rice in Kerala (2,837 kg/hectare) was higher than the Indian average (2,424 kg/hectare), but lower than the yield in Punjab (3952 kg/hectare), and way behind the rice yield in China (6,744 kg/hectare) (see the Government of Kerala’s Economic Review 2015). High costs of cultivation combined with low productivity have translated into inadequate levels of income generation for farmers cultivating rice in Kerala.

Minimum support prices (MSP) announced by the government greatly influence the rate at which farmers are able to sell their crop. One of the significant interventions by the Kerala government to promote rice cultivation has been to procure rice at a price higher than the MSP announced by the Central Government. The minimum support price (MSP) for paddy announced by the Kerala government increased gradually from Rs 700 per quintal in 2006 to Rs 1400 per quintal in 2011, and to Rs 2150 per quintal now (in 2016). At the same time, the MSP of paddy fixed by the Central government for the 2016-17 kharif season is only Rs 1470 (1 quintal = 100 kilograms).

However, even an MSP of Rs 2150 per quintal is not remunerative enough for a person who is primarily dependent on farming. Interviews with some of the farmers in Kumarakom suggested that the expenditure incurred in cultivating rice on a one-acre plot (in one season) is approximately Rs 20,000. Therefore, the net income of a farmer who obtains 2,000 kg of paddy from one acre is approximately Rs 23,000 (at an MSP of Rs 2150 per quintal). Paddy needs intense monitoring during the 120-day period of its cultivation, and, taking into account the time and labour spent by the farmer and her family members (not included in the cost mentioned above), a net income of Rs 23,000 per acre per season is far from adequate.

Land as a Speculative Asset

A major obstacle to the expansion of rice cultivation in Kerala is the high demand for land in the State for residential housing, commercial projects, and as a speculative asset. Residents in Kumarakom recall how land prices in the region increased from around Rs 30,000 per acre in the late 1990s to Rs 2.5 to Rs 5 million per acre at certain points in time during the 2000s. There has been great pressure on farmers to sell their paddy fields and to use the money from the sale of land for their various needs, including children’s education.

In spite of the pronouncements by the government in this regard, there are clearly many challenges to resuming paddy cultivation in Methran Kayal and at the site in Aranmula earlier identified for the airport project. The 500 acres of land acquired for the Aranmula airport project and the 378 acres proposed for the Methran Kayal eco-tourism project are still in the possession of their respective private promoters. It is not clear how the government is going to acquire the land from the promoters before undertaking paddy cultivation on them. In Methran Kayal, it is also important to construct a retention wall to prevent flooding from the Vembanad Lake.

Despite the hurdles, the steps initiated by the government to resume paddy cultivation in Methran Kayal and Aranmula have been widely welcomed. It is believed that the government’s moves would at least send a message to real estate players against acquiring wetland for commercial activity.

There is much that the State and Central governments can do to revive the role of rice cultivation in the agrarian economy of Kerala. The government should explore the enormous possibilities with respect to use of technology in paddy cultivation in the State. Mechanisation of agricultural operations is still at an infant stage in Kerala. A lot can be learnt from the experiences of Japan and other East Asian countries, where machines such as automatic rice planters are deployed for rice cultivation. Such machines have substantially reduced manual labour use in rice cultivation, and allowed it to be carried out as a weekend or secondary occupation for many in these countries.

There is need for more effective irrigation and water management systems in Kerala. The agricultural extension network in the State needs to be strengthened. More efforts are required in agricultural and biotechnological research, directed especially towards Kerala’s indigenous rice varieties, including jeerakasala, gandhakasala, and the njavara variety. Panchayats and other local bodies need to find ways in which rice cultivation and the tourism sector can enrich each other.