KASARGOD: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is roundly criticised by the Opposition for not keeping his word on doubling farmers’ income. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh says the promise was a ‘jumla’, and to double the income, the economy should grow at 12 per cent. In Kasargod, however, the paddy farmers did not wait for macro indices to rise to boost their income.
The state government, scientists of the Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS), Pilicode, and paddy farmers have come together to change the way farming is done and produce sold. The result: Farmers’ income has increased by 50 per cent in the first two years. Forty tonnes of paddy were harvested from 30 acres in Malapp, with the price rising from R20 to R30 per kilogram. “The income can increase threefold if they use the mini rice mill given to them, and sell rice instead of grains,” said Dr R Veena Rani, agriculture assistant director, Nileshwaram Block Panchayat. “Our methods are sustainable and can be replicated.”
K Vijayan left his two acres of paddy field fallow for two years (2015 and 2016). He did not hold a chance in front of the seeping saline water and shortage of labour at Kannamkai in Pilicode panchayat. But unknown to him, something else had seeped into the same panchayat in 2016: A new way of farming, called ‘Punchapadam’. The name was suggested by Pilicode panchayat president T V Sreedharan.
Under the ‘Punchapadam’ scheme, officers from the Agriculture Department first formed a collective of 30 farmers owning paddy fields at Malapp. Some of them were cultivating, and others had left their fields fallow. “We convinced them to restart farming as a collective effort and they agreed,” said Jaleshan P V, agricultural officer of Pilicode gram panchayat.
There were three rules for Punchapadam, he said. Right from nursery to harvest, farming would be mechanised; the thrust was on organic farming; and the farmers were nudged to let go of their old varieties of rice such as Aishwarya, Uma and Jyothi. Farmers were given Jaiva and Ezhome-2 varieties of rice developed by Vanaja T, professor, Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, RARS, Pilicode.