The Hindu : Kerala News : High-yielding seeds for Pokkali farmers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Sep 12, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

High-yielding seeds for Pokkali farmers

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI, SEPT. 11. The Pokkali Land Development Agency is planning to increase the production of high-yielding varieties of seeds in a bid to enhance the annual yield of the organically-cultivated Pokkali rice.

The Agency, based at North Paravur, is planning to produce 18 tonnes of high-yielding varieties of seeds through its seed programme in association with the State Seed Development Authority, Thrissur. The agency has already distributed 1.8 tonnes of seeds to registered seed growers in Ernakulam and Thrissur districts, Zeenath Akbar, member-secretary of the Agency, said.

Incentive

The majority of Pokkali farmers spread over the coastal regions of Ernakulam, Alappuzha and Thrissur districts is still using low-yielding local varieties like `chettu pokkali' which have only an average yield of about 1,200-1,500 kg per hectare. The new varieties are said to have a yield of 3,500-4,000 kg a hectare, Ms. Akbar said. Even 2,000 kg a hectare would make a big difference for the farmers, she said.

The registered seed growers will grow the seed in 18.3 hectares of land — 10 hectares in Ezhikkara and 3.3 hectares in Edavanakkad in Ernakulam district and five hectares in Kodungallur in Thrissur district. The seeds will be ready by November. The State Seed Development Authority will procure the seedls at a rate of Rs.10 per kg from the farmers with an incentive of Re.1 per kg. The seeds will then be distributed to the farmers during the next planting season in June-July.

The new varieties, Vyttila-IV and Vyttila-V, developed at the Rice Research Station at Vyttila, are being used for producing seeds. While Vyttila-IV produces the typically red Pokkali rice, Vyttila-V is white in colour.

Ms. Akbar said the Pokkali farmers need to be given more awareness about the possibilities of crop insurance, both under the national and the State schemes. Pokkali farming always has a high risk factor, which increases the importance of crop insurance.

Threshing machine

Apart from natural calamities like saline water intrusion, there is the problem of labour shortage. Since the harvesting of Pokkali rice is highly labour intensive, the crop getting damaged owing to the shortage of farm labourers is common and this often contributes to the loss factor of Pokkali farming.

As a solution to this problem, threshing machine has already been introduced. Talks are going on with the Kerala Agro Machinery Corporation (Kamco) at Athani for a floating type harvesting machine that could be used in the submerged Pokkali fields, she said.

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