Date:14/12/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/12/14/stories/2006121401740300.htm

Kerala - Alappuzha

`Take steps to save paddy farming'

Staff Reporter

Steps to control floods by ensuring free flow of water demanded

ALAPPUZHA: A discussion organised by the Kuttanad Vikasana Samithi (KVS) to collect suggestions on revival of paddy cultivation in Kuttanad has called for steps to control floods by ensuring free flow of water through canals and water bodies and to use bio-walls to strengthen the outer bunds of paddy fields.

The major suggestions of the discussion include introduction of an integrated farming system with thrust on organic farming, construction of modern mini-rice mills and storage facilities for farmers and conservation of biodiversity of Kuttanad.

KVS executive director Fr. Thomas Peelianikkal would submit suggestions to agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan, who is deputed by the Union Government to prepare an agriculture package for Alappuzha.

The participants of the discussion demanded that the construction of Alappuzha-Changanassery canal be completed without delay to facilitate the flow of floodwater of Kuttanad into Pallathuruthi River.

Completion of the canal would save the southern part of Kuttanad from floods, said Fr. Peelianikkal. The discussion called for dismantling the barrage between C and D blocks of paddy fields in lower Kuttanad that obstructed the free flow of water through the Pamba.

Such a move would help to control floods in upper Kuttanad, noted the participants. They called for removal of all manmade blockages across the water bodies in Kuttanad. Steps should be taken to remove silt in canals and rivers. The discussion noted that the rubble walls that served as bunds around the paddy fields were not strong enough to withstand floods and demanded that such bunds needed to be strengthened using bio-walls.