KANNIYAKUMARI: Defying increasing pressure from real estate developers and the lure of cash crops, farmers in Manavalakurichi continue to uphold a centuries-old tradition of exclusive paddy cultivation across the Periyankulam Yela region.
Spread over 500 acres and irrigated by the historic Periyankulam tank, the area remains one of the last strongholds of traditional rice farming in the Nanjil Nadu region of Kanniyakumari district.
While large tracts of farmland across Tamil Nadu are being converted into housing plots or used to grow commercial crops like coconut and banana, the Periyankulam tank water users' association has maintained a strict policy of cultivating only paddy in the Yela. The tank, fed by the Valliyar river, supports two annual paddy harvests-Kanni Poo and Kumba Poo- with pulses such as black gram and green gram grown after the second season. No other crops are allowed.
According to Velmurugan Periavan, a native of Ammandivilai and Head of the Television Department at the TN Government MGR Film and Television Institute in Chennai, the tank and its paddy fields have existed for more than a thousand years. "Stone inscriptions on the tank wall record that in 1021 CE, Chola King Raja Raja Chozhan issued an order to repair and preserve the tank after it breached," said Velmurugan, who has documented the legacy in his book 'Valliyarum Periyakulam Yelavum'.
He recalled that in the 1990s, when a few farmers attempted to grow banana and coconut trees, the then president of the farmers' association, A C Ramaswamy Nadar, moved the court and secured an order prohibiting cultivation of any crops other than paddy in the Periyakulam Yela.
"The soil remains fertile because the tank has been a consistent source of water. This continuity has helped us avoid land degradation," said L Raj Kumar, president of the Manavalakurichi Periyakulam Puravu Water Users Association. "More than 500 acres are irrigated through the tank, and we've strictly avoided cash crops to protect our land and legacy," he added.
Former association president R Vijayakumar, son of Ramaswamy Nadar, said the area was once the largest stretch of paddy fields in Kalkulam taluk. "The government should step in to support farmers and protect this agricultural heritage," he said, noting that the tank itself spans 157 acres and contains clean water year-round.
The Periyakulam Yela farmers' association was first formed in 1955 during agitations to merge parts of Kanniyakumari with Tamil Nadu from the erstwhile Travancore state. It was officially registered in 1974 by then Manavalakurichi panchayat president A K Sundaram Pillai.