The Hindu : Kerala News : Grassroots initiative to conserve paddy fields

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 21, 2006

Kerala

Kerala

Grassroots initiative to conserve paddy fields

While reclamation of large extent of paddy fields under increasing pressure for land for construction activities is fast changing the landscape in the paddy cultivating areas in the district, even a small initiative to save the environmentally-sensitive wetland fields from further obliteration acquires much significance. The Edakkad Block Panchayat has launched such an initiative with the involvement of people in the panchayat area.

Until recently, reclamation of paddy fields was done discreetly when it was most essential as people were mindful of the ban on using the fields for construction. Today, the paddy fields in the district as elsewhere are vanishing in broad daylight. The fact that these paddy fields play a crucial role in recharging groundwater sources makes little sense when someone fills the land with earth (coming from demolished hills) to construct buildings.

It is estimated that 30 per cent of paddy fields in the block panchayat have been reclaimed for construction purposes over the last 20 years. The panchayat has lost 42 hectares of the fields during the last three years alone. Nearly half of paddy cultivators have abandoned cultivation and a large extent of cultivable land has been left fallow. However, landowners are not ready to handover these lands to paddy farmers' groups and individuals willing to do paddy cultivation. The authorities turn a blind eye to the reclamation of paddy land for property development.

The panchayat's Friends of Rice Fields scheme is meant to check this trend and to mobilise local public opinion against loss of the paddy fields. The scheme also envisages a collective initiative to give maximum encouragement to paddy growers. The Friends of Rice Fields has a three-tier system under the block panchayat level, grama panchayat level and ward level. The objectives the scheme aims to achieve include awareness creation and lawful people's opposition to paddy field reclamation, among other things.

The Friends of Rice Fields will collect all data regarding paddy cultivation in the block panchayat over the last 20 years, implementation of projects considering local prospects and possibilities, efforts to dissuade people from leaving paddy fields fallow and disseminate information regarding trends in paddy cultivation sector.

Agriculture officials in the block panchayat say that the scheme is an innovative experiment in conserving the paddy fields with the involvement of local bodies, public, Revenue and agriculture officials. By August 17, paddy fields protection workshop in all the grama panchayats under the block panchayat will have been completed. The initiatives will be periodically monitored by ward, panchayat and block panchayat level committees, they say.

Mohamed Nazeer

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