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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | In Kerala, the drought has as much to do with nature as with humans -Vinson Kurian

In Kerala, the drought has as much to do with nature as with humans -Vinson Kurian

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published Published on Mar 15, 2017   modified Modified on Mar 15, 2017
-The Hindu Business Line

Thiruvananthapuram: J Cherian, an MBA in biotech from Scotland, who took to farming on his ancestral property in central Kerala, watches in despair as a merciless March sun beats down on his young plants.

“This is unlike anything that I've seen in my eight years in the fields,” he says with a shrug of his shoulders.

The administration seemed to concur, with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan declaring that artificial rain was an option that was seriously being explored in the ‘monsoon-gateway’ state.

The government gave further vent to its concern by asking a stunned PepsiCo to drastically cut down usage of groundwater for its Palakkad bottling plant by as much as 75 per cent.

Worst in a century

Cherian says the drought, widely considered the worst in over a century, has led to wilting of his cardamom, coffee and pepper crops.

Cardamom is hypersensitive to dryness and has suffered the most. “When there is not enough water to drink, how can one hope to irrigate the plants,” he wonders. “Even if it were to rain now, it would not make any big difference.”

(Even as this was being written, the first showers of summer, heavy at times, lashed parts of the State and helped douse raging wild fires in the vulnerable Western Ghats.)

A group of small-time farmers in Cherian's neighbourhood said what was even more painful was the shortage of fodder for cattle.

Fodder crunch

Milk production has dwindled to half. Fodder, which used to be freely available, commands a premium price of up to Rs. 16 per kg.

Depending on the size and growth stage, cattle consume 6-10 kg of fodder a day. Maintaining a cow is now a losing proposition. This is leading to distress sale of cattle for prices as low as Rs. 17,000, for pedigreed animals that command up to Rs. 60,000.

Jaimol, another young farmer, who owns a herd of 15 hybrids, says she is finding it difficult to make both ends meet. These are only glimpses of the turmoil in farmlands in Kerala’s interior.

Is this a natural calamity or a man-made crisis, hastened by abuse of precious natural resources? Available evidence shows one conspiring with the other to present farmers with a fait accompli.

Consider these facts. The State has 44 rivers, of which 41 flow to the west (emptying into the sea) and three to the east. It receives 2.78 times more rainfall than the national average — or five and three times more than Rajasthan and neighbouring Tamil Nadu, respectively.

It has the world’s maximum well density—6.6 million wells drilled into the small landscape. Apparently, there is a well for every seven persons in the state.

Please click here to read more.

The Hindu Business Line, 13 March, 2017, http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/agri-business/in-kerala-the-drought-has-as-much-to-do-with-nature-as-with-humans/article9582338.ece


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