Kerala - Kannur   

‘Kaipad’ fields to grow paddy again

KANNUR: As part of the intensive efforts of the district panchayat and the Agriculture Department to revive cultivation in the ‘kaipad’ fields (land under tidal action) in the basins of the Kattampally river here, steps are under way to restore over 200 hectares of marshy land for rice cultivation in the first stage of a three-phase revival project planned in the area.

The revival project has been initiated in the wake of the government’s decision to open the shutters of the Kattampally irrigation project to allow tidal action in the basin as demanded by farmers in the kaipad area. The kaipad land here has been left fallow for over 46 years since the commissioning of the irrigation project.

District panchayat president K.K. Narayanan said at a press conference here on Thursday that 1,000 ha of kaipad land that had been left uncultivable for decades would be made cultivable in three phases by 2013. Agriculture Minister Mullakkara Ratnakaran would formally inaugurate the project at a function in Kannadiparamba here on June 20.

Principal Agricultural Officer Ashok Kumar Thekkan, who was also present at the press conference, said that the soil of the kaipad land hardened over decades following the prevention of tidal action in the basin was now softened and fit for cultivation of salinity-resistant rice varieties.

The high-yield Vyttila-6 variety that was expected to yield four tonnes of rice per ha was among the varieties being experimented at Kattampally, he said adding that in the first phase revival of 203 ha of kaipad land, 600 tonnes of rice yield was expected.

The farmers in the kaipad land spread across nine grama panchayats in the district were already jubilant over the plan to revive the land for cultivation, Mr. Thekkan said. Shortage of labour being a major problem facing paddy farmers, a 600-strong agricultural labour force had been formed, he said. K. Sudhakaran, MP, would distribute membership and uniform to the registered members of the force at the function. Mr. Thekkan said that they had been given training in the Regional Agriculture Research Station at Pattambi. The workers, mostly women, would be given special incentive and higher wages, he added.

The decision to open the shutters of the irritation project to revive tidal influence in the basin followed a report submitted by a panel headed by P.V. Balachandran of the Paddy Mission.

The Kattampally revival project had been given top priority in the district panchayat’s agriculture development scheme of the current financial year, Mr. Narayanan said.

The panchayat had sanctioned Rs.50 lakh for the purchase of farming equipment. Moreover, the panchayat had submitted to the government a Rs.1.79-crore proposal under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna, he said adding that steps were now on to revive 88 ha of kaipad land in the Narath panchayat alone.

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