In Kerala, paddy production and area under paddy cultivation have been shrinking over the years, but farmers at Mayyil village panchayat in Kannur district have reversed their fortunes.

Paddy cultivation had turned into an unremunerative activity mainly due to increasing labour costs, low yields and poor returns from the final produce. This resulted in farmers shifting to other crops and leaving paddy fields untilled.

When fallow paddy fields grew at Mayyil, the local self-governing body and agriculture department made its first intervention in 2016. The village panchayat launched a Total Rice Campaign or “Sampoorna Nellu Krishi” to revive paddy farming.

P Jayaraj, Director of Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) in Kannur said “the initial step was to improve the soil health to show that soil treated properly with required nutrients can work wonders. With the help of a few farmers, we went for scientific paddy cultivation on a demonstration basis. It yielded a bumper crop, igniting keen interest and confidence among farmers’’.

The KVK, with the help of local farmer groups, went for an awareness drive. The first step was to rope in local libraries. Mayyil has 35 libraries registered with the state library council and using these libraries, around 25 paddy farming groups were constituted. Each group was given blocs of fields, with lands taken on lease, ranging from 15 acres to 170 acres.

NABARD and three-tier local self-governing bodies extended financial support for paddy farmer groups. In June 2017, the farmer-producer organisation, Mayyil Rice Producer Company (MRPC), was formed with 300 farmers from various groups as members.

MRPC Chairman K K Ramachandran said “we prepared a standard operating procedure, a farming calendar for every farmer groups. The health of the soil was improved and a protocol was fixed”.

To reduce labour cost, agri-machinery was hired and supplied to all groups as per the calendar. When average paddy production in Kerala was 2,400 kg per hectare in 2016, the farmers at Mayyil were given a target of 7,500 kg.

Jayaraj said uniform practice among all farmers made the whole soil healthier and resulted in surprisingly high yields. The production in 2017 ranged between 6,500 kg to 11,500 kg. The production costs had already halved, thanks to the adoption of scientific farming practices.

The next task was finding a market. Earlier, farmers were at the mercy of private mills, which offered less than Rs 20 per kg of raw paddy. State-run Supplyco used to procure at Rs 23 per kg, but the dampener was delayed payment. At this stage, MRPC stepped in to procure the paddy and convert it into rice under a new brand called “samruddhi”.

The most innovative intervention of the company was to provide mini rice mills to farmers. Powered with a 3 HP motor, it can convert 120 kg of paddy into rice in an hour. It was the first time in Kerala that such mini rice mills were provided to farmers.

The company supplied mills to farmers and fixed Rs 9 as the charge for converting 1 kg of paddy into rice. At present, 55 such mills are being operated by farmers inside their homes, apart from a few common mills run by MRPC.

Over the last three years, the number of farmers involved has gone up from 1,100 to 2,380 and the area under paddy cultivation has shot up from 850 acres to 1,480 acres.

Shaju PhilipShaju Philip covers Kerala for The Indian Express... read more