Socio-cultural Processes and Livelihood Patterns at Tirurangadi - CDS

field is transformed, the same process has to be done in order to prepare the ground (
thadam) for planting coconut. This has resulted in the transformation of the field so that
paddy cannot be grown there any more, without a substantial ‘reclamation’. In the nearby
fields also, the requisite water supply cannot be maintained because of the lack of proper
drainage, and they are left fallow soon to be transformed into another coconut or plantain
garden. There are also a number of places where coconut gardens have been set up in
between paddy fields, which have affected seriously the water supply and drainage in the
nearby fields, rendering them less productive or useless. These problems have once again
increased the cost of production in paddy and a number of tracts in the low-lying regions
have been lying fallow for several years.
The impact of the market forces in cultivation has also meant that the shift from paddy
cultivation has not resulted in the development of other paramba products, such as pepper
and ginger. Ginger cultivation, which was widespread in the slopes, has been eliminated,
and pepper is not seen at all. The demand for timber in the construction works, and the
price that rare timber fetches in the market has resulted in the virtual denudation of the
paramba lands, and such trees have all been replaced by coconut, if the land has not been
used for construction. This has meant that when coconut also fails to become
remunerative (as was the case a few years before); the cultivator in the area has nothing
else to bank on.
However, a few interesting features in the field of cultivation should also be mentioned.
The department of agriculture promoted the concept of patasekharasamitis, being
implemented through Krishibhavans. In majority of the Panchayats the samitis have been
lying idle, primarily because of the indifference of the farmers, and which are assembled
only in the context of distribution of subsidies. A few such samities in Tirurangadi appear
to be functioning well as a few farmers in the area have taken initiative. Similarly, there
are also keravikasanasamitis, which are functioning in some places. The second feature is