Golden harvest by Nadathara in Bitter Gourd,

Kakkodi seeks fortune in Tapioca

Believe it or not, the total sales turn-over of the lady agriculturists of Nadathara village in Thrissur district in the last financial year was rupees fourteen crores! This came from the crop in 330 acres of land, cultivated by 569 women in 78 JLGs (Joint Liability Groups).

Though there are many crops, the dream-success of Nadathara was in the cultivation of bitter gourd.

These ladies worked the miracle, lining themselves under the Group Farming Project put forward by Kudumbashree. Of the villages that express feminine power through excellence in agriculture, Nadathara has been the first in the state for the last two years, and at the district level it retained the first place for the last five years.

Success in the strength of Bitterness

C.D.S. Chairperson Mrs. Mercy Gopi, who is the leader from 2004 onwards, says that the enthusiasm of all NHGs (Neighbourhood Groups) has risen as their hard work began to yield bumper crops. Some five-member groups have cultivated bitter gourd in more than twenty acres of land. The total amount of loans granted by banks to the NHGs crossed one crore mark. As there was no more agricultural land available in their panchayath they cultivated on lands of even the neighbouring panchayaths of Puthur and Pananchery. The house-wives who went for work with food and water from Cherumkuzhy to Thamarachal, a tribal area, flew high the flag of Nadathara’s willpower.

Many groups sold bitter gourd worth more than twenty lakhs. In some farm- groups each member got up to three lakhs every year from the sale of crops. There were no middle-men in the sale. Those who were in need came to the field at the time of harvest. Tons of bitter gourd went to various parts of the state.

As part of group-farming cauliflower, cabbage, plantain, leaf vegetables, peas and paddy are cultivated. Mrs. Mercy Gopi says that 90% women of the panchayath have been made self-supporting through various activities including group-farming by Kudumbashree. The NHGs of Nadathara are also successfully carrying on projects of self-employment like catering, tailoring, goat-village, broom-making, construction of hollow-bricks, pickle making etc.

In Response: The Centre’s Plans too

Kudumbashree is the executive agency of MKSP-Mahila Kissan Empowerment Pariyojana in Kerala which is the subsidiary project of NRLM. It was in Nadathara that MKSP conducted the national workshop with a view to awakening the agriculture sector of Kerala. The delegates from all the states stayed in farmers’ houses in the village. These people left wonder-struck jotting down comments of appreciation in the Kudumbashree evaluation register. Nadathara’s achievements was a great surprise for all of them.

Kakkodi too ! Ready to go

Kakkodi is just ten kilometres from Kozhikkode city. Acres of land in this panchayath which has been lying wooded is now being cleared and made ready for group farming. JCBs, tractors and rotovators are at work here. It is two hundred house-wives who are in the field for joint farming.

This time the experiment is with tapioca which has been promoted these days as a favorite dish in the dining table of Malayalees. The high price too is a source of attraction.

No! We can’t be defeated!

Even though in the field as early as in 2007, the women of Kakkodi became much interested in group farming only from last year. It was vegetable cultivation that they first attempted on a large scale. But the rain that broke all past records disheartened them. Farming was not profitable. Still their enthusiasm was not gone. The second coming is on the cards. In May last year new plans were formed. The chairperson of Kakkodi CDS, Mrs. C.V. Sujatha said how the housewives who attended a very good training class changed over to those crops that would not be affected badly by the rains. When the Department of Agriculture, Kudumbashree and the Panchayath walked along with them things moved fast.

Most of the land used for group farming was that which lay uncultivated; the owners who gave consent letters to the women-farmers would be given a share of the crops at the harvest time.

The two and a half acre compound around the Govt. Printing press complex which lay shut down was cleared and was used for tapioca cultivation recently. A great effort was needed for getting the land ready.

Many as models

CDS Chairperson Sujatha said that there was not much to be written about them, even in the Kozhikkode district. There are several CDSs there which are adept in group-farming. They are at Kavilumpara, Chemanchery, Thamarassery, Thiruvavmbadi, Chakkittappara, Perambra etc. The women of Perambra worked a miracle two years back by even dry-land paddy cultivation in 170 acres.

However the people of Kakkodi are up and ready for a daring venture this time. It is in twenty acres of land that they have cultivated tapioca, Plantain tree cultivation in ten acres, besides ginger, colocasia, yam, turmeric and paddy cultivation on dry and wet land. Sujatha asks if this isn’t enough for a beginning. They also want to prove before the biased people that farming is not a loss making venture.

Kakkodi’s women and their enthusiasm is a model for those who are not interested with farming.

From tuber plants to climbing nettles

Apart from bitter gourd and tapioca the Kudumbashree women have taken up the cultivation of traditional crops in traditional style in various places. Varavoor in Thrissur is good for tuber plants while in Mullasserry paddy farming is flourishing. In Ayiloor and Puthukkod in Palakkad, besides paddy, plantain trees, tubers, vegetables, mushroom, cabbage, cauliflower and groundnut are cultivated. In Kannur herbal nettles are cultivated in ten acres.

Soaked with aids and grants

Strong is the government backing for these JLGs who work hard on soil. Proper training, master farmers for guidance, special encouragement for organic farming and bank loans provided to them.

There are also many other aids that invite those willing to work hard - Kudumbashree financial aid, the Panchayath fund, seeds, manures from ‘Krishibhavan’, interest subsidy for those who have taken loans, area incentive based on productivity, production bonus, and also a small matching grant. The support from employment guarantee project (NREG) is also available for the women farmers.

Harvest in mind and soil

Group-farming was the interference Kudumbashree made through agriculture ways of life with the proclaimed goals of the economic growth of the poor women folks in villages and the food security of the state.

There was a terrific fall in the number of farmers in the state. Malayalees were in the plight of having expensive and harmful food products imported from other states. Group-farming communities are a panacea for this and a model for those who have withdrawn from the field of agriculture.

Thousands have stepped into the soil awakening the agricultural world of Kerala. The Executive Director of Kudumbashree Ms. K. B. Valsalakumary IAS says that more than two lakh women are now active in the agricultural field under group farming project. Another achievement is that there are no more barren lands in rural areas. Many are those who have bought the land they took up for tenancy and those who have built their own houses and those who have married off their daughters from the income they got from farming.

Group-farming, in the meanwhile, has been able to spread root in most parts of the state. Group-farming communities are cultivating lands even in the six villages in the one and only tribal Panchayath of Kerala, Idamalakkudi in Idukki district and in the forty tribal villages in Attapadi.

Group-farmers we are

The Number of those in the Kudumbashree Project of Group-farming