KOCHI: Upland paddy cultivation is becoming a trend in the district with Kothamangalam block panchayat leading in terms of acreage under farming. The cultivation practice that was taken up by many in Kothamangalam on an experimental basis in 2019 gained more takers this year, thanks to Subhiksha Keralam project. The other places in the district that are seeing fallow land paddy cultivation are Vadakekkara and now Chendamangalam.
“Paddy was grown in 50 cents of land in Chendamangalam as part of a scheme launched by the Agriculture Department to promote paddy farming,” said Anilkumar M N, member, ward number 8, Chendamangalam. According to him, the project was taken up by Uthaman, a farmer. “He came forward and cultivated the fallow land after taking it on lease. He was provided seeds of the Uma variety for cultivation and it has been found that the amount of chaff was very less,” he said.
According to Anil, the paddy is of good quality. “This has encouraged him to expand the cultivation by taking more land on lease. Besides, Uthaman, during the lockdown period, some senior citizens in the panchayat had taken up paddy farming in small plots of land,” he said. Kumari Thilakan is one such farmer. “We had cultivated a small area of land near our house last year and saved the paddy seeds. So, this year, during the lockdown, since we had nothing else to do, we took some land on lease from a neighbour and sowed paddy. The crop is ready for harvest,” she said.
Meanwhile, at Kothamangalam, it seems a revolution has begun with already 20 acres of fallow land under paddy cultivation. “The main attraction of fallow land cultivation is that it doesn’t require a lot of investment like wetland paddy cultivation,” said Sindhu V P, assistant director of agriculture. “Subhiksha Keralam project acted as a motivator. When it comes to yield, it might not be equivalent to that of the wetland cultivation. But, we had seen harvests amounting to 1.5 tonnes to 2 tonnes,” she said. With minimal investment and labour, the harvest is good.