Pokkali Rice farming&Prawn Farming

The Kerala State had 20,000 hectres of Pokkali paddy fields.Later on this was reduced to 500 Hectres&at present just 1000Hectres. The reasons for reduction in Paddy fields is obvious curse of Kerala &needs no elaboration.One of the factors for this catastrophi is stated to be the laziness of the people to work on field.The main curse ,however,remains as the attempts to close the paddy fields to build posh buildings.The reluctance&laziness of people to become farmers also indirectly contributed towards the coming up of the buildings by replacing paddy fields. But still,in certain places in Alapuzha,Thrissur&Ernakulam the Pokkali Rice Cultivation along with Prawn farming is being carried out one after another in a scientific&systematic form.This is an Exclusive&wonderful process. The specific&peculiar manner adopted to cultivate is somewhat astonishing too.No where in the World such a process is being followed it appears. The Peculiar&Ashtonishing method being followed is one that supports Dual Farming every year. Based on the change of season from Pokkali to Prawn farming,the decay of the first farming is arranged in such a way that it becomes a factor helping the second as a manure. In other words,the Decay ofb the Pokkali farming becomes a manure for the following Prawn Farming&similarly the decay of the prawn farming becomes a manure for the P_)okkali farming that follows. y\this process continues. In a year 6 months are alolowed for Pokkali from June to November&Prawn farming from Mid November to April. This kind of interdependent process does not appear to be available anywhere in the world. RThis kind of farming has the approval®istration at the Geographical Registration Organization at Chennai. This Dual farming in Kerala should be considered as Blessing in Disguise in a state where people do not wish to resort to farming thereby leading an easy life by becoming the slaves of Political Parties. This interlinked Dual Cultivation needs encouragement from all sources especially from Government because ther Paddy&Prawn dual cultivation is a reasonably good source to the Exchequer of the State. The resistance of the Pokkali rice to salintity is a remkarkable factor that governs the farming positively. Sincev the tidal Flows makes rthe fields highly fertile no special manure is necessary for Pokkali Rice. No need to mention the advantages derived by Prawn farming in the Coastal areas of Kerala.The pokkali decay contributes towards the growth of Prawn farming In view of what has been mentioned above these two interdependent cultivations deserve every kind of encouragement from the Government&people. I neeed not mention about the taste &popularity of Prawns in Kerala&abroad. As far as Pokkali rice is concerned ,they are bigger in sizes ver tasty& highly nutritious with higher levelotein contyents. It is learnt that some unscrupulous profit mongers are trying to alter the seasons of OPokkali&Prawn by allotting more time for prawn than Pokkali.The change in the sseasonal period is likely to adversely hamper the prospects of both the products. So it is a must that any attempt to hamper the traditional farming of Pokkali&Prawn should be discouraged with a view to ensuring the efforts from farmers do not become infructous or resulting in reduction of the Benefits to the farmers. Exploitation in the name of farmers &diverting advantages to the interested profit mongers should be discouraged totally. SreedharanMundanat 16th April 2014 08-40 Hrs(IST)