Monday, Jul 19, 2004
Monday, Jul 19, 2004 |
| Kerala | ||||
|
News:
Front Page |
National |
Tamil Nadu |
Andhra Pradesh |
Karnataka |
Kerala |
New Delhi |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Kerala
-
Kochi
By Our Staff Reporter
KOCHI, JULY 18. The agriculture workers in West Kochi will stage a `famine march' to the block panchayat office at Palluruthy on Monday, to highlight the crisis farming sector has ended up in after many failed seasons. The march, organised by the Kerala State Karshaka Thozhilali Union, would raise demands such as providing free ration to these workers and conserving the remaining paddy cultivation in the region. The root cause of the crisis, the local farmers pointed out, was the new trend of resorting to prawn farming throughout the year. Earlier, the paddy fields were converted into prawn farms alternately after the harvest every six months. This arrangement provided employment for local labourers and when these paddy fields were converted permanently into prawn breeding farms, the job prospects dwindled drastically. "Also, the water got contaminated by continuous prawn breeding and increasing presence of industrial units in the region. Many of the prawn farmers faced heavy losses as batch after batch of prawn seeds died in about a month's time, without growing to maturity," said Suresh, one of the labourers in a defunct prawn farm in Chellanam. The crisis reached a full circle when even those who wanted to revert to paddy cultivation could not do so owing to the losses incurred in prawn cultivation. This will be another fact that would be highlighted during the strike. Prawn cultivation gets support from agencies such as the Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT) and the Agency for Development of Aquaculture, Kerala (ADAK). On their part, the officials of ADAK maintain that the farmers seldom confirm the quality of the seeds provided by private distributors even though there are official laboratories for this purpose. This has led to the spread of fatal infections in the water bodies, killing prawns completely. However, the crisis has been caused by the reluctance of many farmers to take up paddy cultivation. The Pokkali Land Development Authority has approved many schemes for promoting paddy cultivation, said Dominic Presentation, Palluruthy MLA. The Authority has been formed to promote traditional farming in Alappuzha, Ernakulam and Thrissur districts.
Printer friendly
page
News:
Front Page |
National |
Tamil Nadu |
Andhra Pradesh |
Karnataka |
Kerala |
New Delhi |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
|
|
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | The Hindu eBooks | Home |
Copyright © 2004, The
Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu
|
