Socio-cultural Processes and Livelihood Patterns at Tirurangadi - CDS

not from the returns that it is able to generate, but from its adaptability to the environment
and its ability to generate sustainable livelihood patterns. The historical experience of
Tirurangadi shows that the region has known a blend of two forms of production based
on the paramba and the patam, identified in the earlier records as wetland and
garden.Paramba used to produce fruits, roots, vegetables, grains like chama, sesamum
and the modan rice, pulses like green gram, horse gram, and black gram, as well as
pepper, ginger, areca, coconut and betel. Wetlands which produced paddy were more or
less monoculture, but the number of crops taken and the crop rotation varied. Fishing and
cattle rearing existed, but fishing was concentrated along the coast and river banks, apart
from occasional Min nayattu in the challis. There is evidence that both these forms were
productive as the loamy soil on which the parambas were located and the alluvial soil on
which the wetlands were to be found were fertile, abetted by the heavy vegetation and the
silt and debris that were brought by the river as well as the streams. The obvious villains
which brought misery to the people were landlordism and the policies of the state,
whether the naduvazhis or British Colonialism. Hence, with the land reforms and the
redistribution of the land among the actual landholders and cultivators the condition of
the landholders should have improved and agricultural production sustainable.
The actual experience of the people can be summarized from the available figures of the
people involved in agriculture:
Panchayat
Table LXXII (Main workers alone)
Agricultural classes-1981 Agricultural classes-2001 %ge variation
cultivators labourers total Cultivators laborers total cultivato
rs
laborers
Vallikkunnu 324 1205 1529 239 403 642 -26.33 -58.01
Thenhippalam 401 941 1342 169 569 738 --57.86 -39.53
Peruvallur 617 1421 2038 349 657 1006 -43. 43 -53.76