Kerala - Alappuzha   

Rain washes away farmers’ hopes

ALAPPUZHA: Summer rain over the past few days has submerged fully grown paddy crop in several thousands of hectares in Kuttanad, threatening to create a huge dent in the already depleted rice stocks of the State.

The unexpected downpour late last week came just when hundreds of farmers were gearing up to harvest the ‘puncha’ crop, for which cultivation began around December last year. However, shortage of labourers for harvesting and arguments with labour unions over permissions to use harvest machines led to delays. By the time the issues were sorted out, the rain came.

Fully grown crop in the Neelamperoor panchayat’s Konam, Karakonam, Valadi, Kiliyankavu and Kozhichal polders (reclaimed land below main sea level), Veliyanadu panchayat’s Parambadi, Ponnambaka, Thaiparambu and Kavalam polders, Rajapuram and the Ramankari panchayat’s Koyil Vattathusseri and Moolamkunnam polders, to name a few, are under water.

The problem is that the wet crop, even if nature obliges a couple of sunny days, will not fetch the government’s stipulated price of Rs.900 per quintal, farmers such as Thomas Chacko of Champakulam say. The danger of the wet crop sprouting also looms large.

The ‘puncha’ yield this year was already under a shadow of a doubt owing to a delayed season, courtesy a delay in arrival of seeds from the National Seeds Corporation, bund breaches and threats from pests, including the dangerous brown plant hopper (Munja).

A United Democratic Front (UDF) team, including K.C. Venugopal and B. Babu Prasad, MLAs, and District Congress Committee president A.A. Shukoor, was flooded with complaints from farmers during a visit to the affected areas on Sunday.

At Champakulam, the Padasekharam Samithi led by Mr. Chacko told the team that it was a delay in permission for harvest machines, which have to come from the Left-leaning Kerala State Karshaka Thozhilali Union (KSKTU), that aggravated their woes. The UDF team has demanded that the government sort out the issues immediately and ensure that the farmers are not pushed into further debt owing to the vagaries of nature and issues connected with the KSKTU.

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