On July 24 the Kerala Assembly passed a legislation prohibiting the indiscriminate reclamation of paddy lands. The “Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Bill 2007”, piloted by the Revenue Minister, Mr K. P. Rajendran, received the government’s assent in early August and is now being printed for notification. The Bill slaps a fine of Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh and up to three years of imprisonment for those found guilty of converting or filling up paddy fields. The scale of punishment extends equally to the officials concerned found violating the Bill.

The Bill is unique, in the sense that no other State has mustered up enough courage to enact a badly needed law such as this, to safeguard the remaining paddy fields from the clutches of the land mafia, and also, on account of some misguided infrastructural development (in the name of Special Economic Zones) piloted by the State itself. There are various reasons why the situation with rice is so precarious now. First and foremost, the low profit the paddy farmers get.

There are close to 3 lakh paddy farmers in the State, but most of them are marginal farmers with average holdings of 0.33 ha — just one-fifth the national average. While the production cost of paddy is one of the highest in the State, at Rs 25,000 per ha, the support price for rice has not changed much over the years.

From Rs 5.34 a kg in 1995, it had gone up to just Rs 10 a kg in 2007, about 87 per cent, not enough to keep pace with the escalation in input and labour costs. This level of support price will not help the farmer break even. This writer has personally witnessed the distressing plight of many rice farmers in Palakkad district, the “rice bowl” of Kerala, where farmers even with about five acres cannot earn a profit of more than Rs 50 a day.

The production incentive for paddy is Rs 350/ha while for banana it is Rs 7,500/ha. Subsidy for rubber is Rs 20,000/ ha and for cardamom it is Rs 40,000/ ha. Most of the paddy farmers do not bother to collect this pittance. Does it not show a totally lop-sided price incentive policy?

Both rubber and cardamom come directly under the Commerce Ministry at the Centre and are treated as important “commodities”. But not paddy. It is basically this “commodity” mindset that has driven a large number of farmers away from paddy cultivation. Go to Waynad. Banana grows on soils once totally filled with rice — ordinary, perfumed, and medicinal varieties.

Both the commodity mindset and the so-called “Green Revolution” have wrought havoc on paddy in Kerala, and loom as a big threat to the State’s food security. The indiscriminate use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides during the Green Revolution phase polluted the soils and wetlands in the State extensively and has turned them into wastelands. Over 7,000 ha of paddy fields in the Kuttanad region, another “rice bowl” of Kerala, are now lying fallow.

A paddy farmer posed this question: “If food is the basic need of the State, then why should we alone bear the burden of rice cultivation at the cost of our survival?” A very pertinent point, indeed. The problem does not stop at the cost of production or incentives alone. The present procurement practice adds to the worry of the paddy farmers.

The Government had entrusted the responsibility of procurement to the Kerala State Civil Supplies Corporation which, in turn, handed over the job to private rice mill owners. Some of the mills deliberately delay procurement, forcing the farmers to engage in “distress sale”.

Often, the farmers sell paddy at Rs 5-6 a kg, while the official procurement price is Rs 10 a kg. And the irony is that in the open market one cannot buy rice at less than Rs 20 a kg.

In 1997 a five-member committee appointed by the State government to enquire into the decreased paddy cultivation had cautioned that any reduction in the traditional paddy area would naturally lead to increasing food insecurity. A number of suggestions have been made, on subsidy, incentives, etc.

Instead of taking action on these recommendations, the Government, directly or indirectly, has encouraged filling up the fields for “infrastructural development”. Even the new legislation permits the Government to reclaim paddy fields for “public purposes”. One is at a loss to understand, what should come first — food or ‘development’. Some important suggestions this author would make are:

Provide a single-window subsidy of Rs 20,000/ha, along with a production bonus of Rs 5,000/ha

Offer a minimum insurance cover of Rs 25,000

Set a minimum support price of Rs 15/kg

Ensure there are district-level procurement centres and deal firmly with corruption

Give special incentives for varieties like Navara, which has ayurvedic value

Explore channels for value addition. A number of value-added materials can come out of rice. Rice bran oil is extremely healthy, next to olive oil, in its cholesterol reducing capacity.

Unless public-funded paddy production units such as the Pattambi-based Rice Research Station under the control of Kerala Agricultural University, take the lead and initiate a coherent and co-ordinated strategy, only private enterprise will corner all the benefits accruing out of such initiatives.

In conclusion, it must be said that it is the Keralites themselves who must realise the gravity of this looming threat of food insecurity, more specifically rice insecurity, and brace themselves for action, because rice is the staple diet of Keralites. Time is fast running out. If the people of Kerala do not act now, future generations will not forgive them, because rice, and “kanji”, might become history.

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