ALAPPUZHA: Integrated farming is fast gaining acceptance among local farmers as those ventured into it have begun to get good returns. Being promoted with organic concepts, integrated farming is slowly gaining acceptance even among those who initially shirked it. Considering Kuttanad’s special ecosystem, it has been found that integrating paddy with fisheries and poultry would help generate additional revenue.
“It has been found that integrated fish farming, for which the Kerala Agricultural University provided the technology, has been beneficial to the farmer,” said K G Padma Kumar, station director, the Regional Agricultural Research Station(RARS), Kumarakom.
He said that an earlier study had indicated that only 12 percent of the cultivable land was being used for farming two crops. The remaining was fallow land. While the cost of production was Rs 525 per quintal earlier, it had come down by 50 percent with the introduction of organic farming.
“There were a lot of apprehensions that fish farms would completely replace rice, but that did not happen. Instead, farmers have got into rice, fish, duck and even cattle farming, multiintegrating them”, he said.
“With the unpredictable climatic changes which affect the monsoon cycle, we are introducing the cultivation of vegetables like potato, cabbage and cauliflower,” said D Alexander, director of research, the Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur.
The State, which had 8.75 lakh hectares of paddy cultivation, now has only 2.75 lakh hectares for cultivation.
“As part of the Paddy Mission and the Coconut Mission, we want to ensure that more and more fallow land be returned to paddy cultivation.
We have identified 10,000 hectares of fallow land in different part of the State for returning to cultivation,” he said.
All these measures gain significance as the ecological restoration of the wetland in Kuttanad was a primary requirement for implementing the recommendations of the Rs 1,850- crore M S Swaminathan Committee package, conceived for the overall development of the `rice bowl’ of Kerala.
To encourage organic farming, the Kuttanad Vikasana Samiti has been assisting farmers to get loans from banks. Though there has been good support from the ministers, the same cannot be said of the case of local leaders, said Father Thomas Peelanickal, executive director of the Samiti. He said that many were afraid of foulplay.
Groups of farmers are working in small farmlands. “We also would not be able to manage large farmlands, because if there is any disharmony among the members that could easily result in major losses. These farmers were not even using bio-fertilisers as both paddy waste and fish culture contributed to the making of healthy organic produce,” he said.
Some farmers who cultivated in 10 acres of land got 2,000 kg of scampi and must have made a total profit of around Rs 30,000.
