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Indian Rice Revival To Heal Ravaged Lands

Indian Rice Revival To Heal Ravaged Lands

01.08.2014 17:17

India exported $3 billion worth of shrimp last year. The nation's seafood industry is booming, but it's also damaging the environment. Farmers in one community are turning to an age-old practice to save their land. At first glance, the town of Neendakara in the south Indian state of Kerala looks like any other coastal village. The single road leading into the hamlet is surrounded by serene ponds. Coconut palms line the water's edge and birds' calls fill the morning air. But disguised behind this rustic charm is a harsh reality. Construction laborer Indira Ramanan points to a hut covered in plastic sheets that are held in place with thick ropes. That used to be her house, but the family had to move out when the brick walls started to crumble and the ceiling nearly collapsed. "This house was completely destroyed and now we're building a new one," she says, standing outside a partially complete two-room building. "We can't finish the construction because there is no money." Booming indust

India exported $3 billion worth of shrimp last year. The nation's seafood industry is booming, but it's also damaging the environment. Farmers in one community are turning to an age-old practice to save their land.

At first glance, the town of Neendakara in the south Indian state of Kerala looks like any other coastal village. The single road leading into the hamlet is surrounded by serene ponds. Coconut palms line the water's edge and birds' calls fill the morning air. But disguised behind this rustic charm is a harsh reality.



Construction laborer Indira Ramanan points to a hut covered in plastic sheets that are held in place with thick ropes. That used to be her house, but the family had to move out when the brick walls started to crumble and the ceiling nearly collapsed.



"This house was completely destroyed and now we're building a new one," she says, standing outside a partially complete two-room building. "We can't finish the construction because there is no money."



Booming industry, crumbling lives



Most of the houses here have suffered the same fate. Ramanan's neighbor Saboo says you just have to taste the powder from the crumbling plaster to find out what's behind the problem. The dust falling from the walls has an unmistakable salty taste.



The source is right next door. Salty rectangular ponds extend as far as the eye can see, each about half a meter deep and brimming with tiny shrimp larvae.



These ponds are part of Kerala's explosion in shrimp production over the past decade. Local catch contributed to the more than $3 billion (2.2 billion euros) worth of shrimp that India exported last year.



The seafood boom has created millions of jobs and made some businessmen very rich. But it is also causing widespread environmental damage - turning soil too salty for farming and contaminating groundwater. Salt from the perennial ponds has permeated deep into the soil, and locals say it's now seeping into buildings, damaging brickwork and wrecking homes.



Shrimp and rice side-by-side



Local residents think they may have a solution: reviving an ancient farming practice that was used over 50 years ago. Back then, farmers would grow shrimp and rice on the same land - planting rice in the rainy season, and converting the field into a shrimp pond for the rest of the year.



"It's a good model of an integrated farming system, which has proved to be very paying here," said V. Sreekumaran, director of the government-run Vytilla Rice Research Station nearby. The practice was called pokkali, named after a special variety of salt-tolerant rice.



To cultivate rice, the paddy needs to stay submerged in freshwater for two to three months after the planting season. A portion of that rainwater percolates down into the soil, flushing out some of the salt and recharging the water table.



There are also other benefits of growing rice, adds Sreekumaran. "It's actually a reservoir of good water that replenishes the drinking water sources of the entire area," he said.



The rice solution?



However, hardly anyone plants rice these days because it doesn't make nearly as much money as shrimp. Up until the 1960s, there used to be 40,000 acres of combined rice and shrimp fields. Now there are only 4,000 acres left, according to Sreekumaran.



With sea levels rising, saltwater intrusion is expected to increase further in low-lying coastal areas. Farmers need to adopt practices that can keep salinity in check, says local activist Francis Kalathunkal, who's been lobbying for government support to revive rice farming.



After more than two years of campaigning by the local residents, last the government year ordered shrimp businesses to plant rice in the rainy season. It was a big victory for Kalathunkal, though it didn't last long.







Battle for rice



The farmers got about 30 tons of rice from the 120 acres that they planted - less than one fourth of the yield from conventional rice fields 50 kilometers away. That only strengthened the opposition to rice.



"They could preserve pokkali as part of history perhaps," shrimp businessman Nickson Edwin said as he inspected his ponds. "But otherwise it doesn't make sense to grow rice here. It's just not profitable."



The seafood industry has created thousands of jobs here, and these businessmen are a wealthy and politically connected group. This year they didn't hand over the fields to the rice farmers, despite protests from local residents.



'The soil is healing'



But Kalathunkal is not deterred. "If we consider the larger interests of society, will we only allow those entities that produce profit to flourish and the rest has to flounder," he said.



"We will hold protests, go to the court, and do everything we can to get action. This is the people's fight."



Indira Ramanan from the village of Neendakara says she is already seeing some benefits from rice that was planted in a field next to her house. Soil that was too salty is gradually healing, she says.



"Nothing used to grow here for 25 years, but after just one year of growing pokkali, tomatoes and flowers are taking root," Ramanan said, pointing to the small plants with white and yellow flowers in her backyard.



"We won't agree to just shrimp farming anymore - it has to be both rice and shrimp."



 
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