Real Estate Menace

                                                                Real Estate Menace

The spurt of real estate development in India saw a tremendous growth after the period of liberalization, privatization and globalization in 1991, where government introduced the LPG. The government broke the monopoly of the public sectors and government companies which had enjoyed the only single player in the market.  The recent flood in Uttarakhand depicts the picture of real estate mafia’s encroachment of lands illegally for their economic benefit paves the way for death of thousands of pilgrimage.  The real estate mafia’s amend the law or make it beneficial to them lobbying politicians who can legislate with environmental acts and so many acts concerned with protection of nature.  The Ministry of Environment and Forest has given so many clearances to the private people who are constructing illegal buildings breaching the norms of Government rules and get their protection by offering huge bribery to the Government officers.  The agitation by people is aggravated by the Judiciaries prejudiced and biased verdicts. The farmers of Uttar Pradesh had protested against the construction of BUDDH international F-1circuit in their farm land.  The person who ordered the shooting of farmers could be identified by neither the Government officials nor the Judiciary.  Whether all the farmers who had lost their land were compensated or not is not clear, and people are fainted with the Capitalist sport watching Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel not worrying about whether the farmers are able to capitalize for their lost land.

            The loss of agricultural land and other useful land are going into the hands of private people who construct building in a large area using ground water exorbitantly.  The Real Estate advertisements in media is quite watching, i have been watching all the advertisements where young couple with their beautiful children walking in the greenery spaces, nearby the swimming pools, doing exercises in the gymnasium, watching movies in the mini theatre, in a neatly planned area with ample space for car parking and so many kind of other stuffs which are highly mesmerizing.  But no one noticed in those advertisements what happened to their age old parents.  Whether they are sent to old age home or left alone in the streets is investigable one.  No one has filed any public interest litigation in the courts which leaves the parents in a family to frustrate. With the advent of migration in the mega cities the construction of building is a big business, where so many people have indulged in real estate activities.  The mafia’s can buy the agricultural land from the poor farmers in a cheap rate and construct huge buildings and sell individual houses from several lakh of rupees to crores earning a big profit within a short period of time.  The Government on other hand pretends to restrict the activities of real estate by making laws.  The Policy where the politicians make is studded with so many loopholes where it does not provide any provision for apprehending the mafias but it will be another chunk of papers which will be shelved soon once the farmers started protesting against this.  

       

The Land Acquisition Bill passed by the members in the parliament promises to provide compensation to the farmers who lost land their land to various governmental and private constructions. One has to be clear that the governments swift in how the Neyveli lignite area farmers were compensated. Government had promised employment but how many got that.  People are highly anxious about the price rice and soaring inflation but it is worrisome when they are not aware of the farmer’s distress and not doing enough to protect their rights. Small farmers are the one who are losing their precious land to real estate mafias in a quick manner due to debt, failure of agriculture, water scarcity. Various agricultural lands are being lost by farmers for several purposes of these the real estate stands foremost in encroaching. Next stands converting the agricultural lands for infrastructure activities.  Our country’s population growth is increasing at the rate of 2.5% per year, it has already crossed 121 crore. The large scale migrations of rural people who are leaving their agricultural land left in fallow searching job in urban areas finally settle in the urban areas.  The increase of migration puts pressure on the land therefore the cities extending to nearby areas. It promotes the construction of houses for ever increasing population in the cities.  Large areas fall victim to the greedy real estate people.

           

The real estate promoters not only build houses but also various resorts in the hilly regions of our country, converting the natural lands into concrete buildings thereby threatening the life of various flora and fauna of the region and the entire environment into lurch. The Uttarakhand flood situation is alleged to be man-made disaster, construction of concrete buildings and resort spas created disequilibrium in that area creating major havoc of landslides, boulder and rocks displacements.  This area will not be used for tourism purpose for at least 3 years, all because of man’s greed of land acquiring and accruing wealth.  Whenever man plays with nature the result will be disastrous to human, we have to realize from the havoc created by Mississippi-Missouri River in the US. So many times dam had been constructed the turbulent water breaches it every time.

            The present condition of real estate enlargement seemed to be nurtured by the Government itself in the name of infrastructure building.  The change in the unified family to neutral family is also another factor attributable to the real estate growth.  Controlling of population shall be the main agenda for the government if it intends to reduce the real estate growth.  One family one child policy has to be adopted by the Government.  The conversion of agricultural land must be stopped by enacting legislation.  Instead of the government’s approach of appointing committee to the committee as had been done in the case of Madhav Gadgil’s committee report reviewed by Kasturirangan committee.

Making Education as Business in Indians

Making Business in Education in India

Education is the backbone of knowledge. The education is being imparted to all children in our country by public as well as private institutions.  Our country has been divided into different educational systems like CBSE, State Board, ICSE, Matriculation, Anglo-Indian etc. Though we have different systems of board for education the standard of our education is not up to the level of international standard. It further aggravates the rich-poor gap among the people.  The growth of educational institutions across the country is infested by the private vested parties with the motive of earning money decreases the value of our educational systems. The Government schools and institutions are most of the time not picked by the high income people who always prefer English schools with good infrastructure. The public and Government schools are preferred by the low income groups whose parents are daily wage earners.  The conditions of the public schools are ironical when one looks its infrastructure like water, toilet and benches and desks for students.  Most of our schools do not have the required number of teachers to take class. In some places there are only Head Master who work as teacher to all classes as well as Head Master of the school.  The participation of girl children in the school is very less when compare with the boys.  The teaching capacities of the rural teachers are highly susceptible.  They do not even possess the required qualification to teach.  But they got their job through the local politician’s coercive action.  The students studying in higher class are not even able to calculate the division and mutiplication of the middle class. This shows the teachers inability to teach. With the introduction of mid-day meal scheme the retaining capacity of the school children has been improved consistently.  But the nutritional capacity remains the same.  This is the clear indication that the nutritional condition of our condition has to be improved.  Mere giving the nutritional food and supplements cannot improve their health. But periodic diagnostic and prevention of nutritional failure should be started.

            The number of school going children slowly decreases with the level from middle, higher to collegiate level.  This can be pictorially represented by drawing a pyramid.  The Government has introduced many scholarship for school students and collegiate/ university students to pursue their higher studies without burdening their parents and also to inculcate the student an enthusiasm to propel scientific and knowledge in various field.  Even though the government provides such facilities the number of students who are getting Government job is steadily increasing with the increase of population. Students who are frustrated against the government  in search of job mostly prefer private jobs are go abroad in search of multinational companies who can offer them high salary and perks.  This cause brain drain to our country as our countries investment in education is reaped by foreign capitalists.  The students who work for the private companies cannot be blamed for their intention to join for the sake of remuneration.  The demand for the Information Technology and its enabled field in the Government sector is negligible.  With the importance of E-governance is felt among the government today various institutions are looking for software and IT applications which could help them eradicating the tedious paper work.

The private institution in education is a big business in India.  Many politicians with their money they accumulated through various ways invest in constructing building around large swaths of agricultural area.  Placing big banners and hoarders in a grand manner lure the students with high income family.  These private institutions demand higher donation fee for their investment and the quality of the teaching staffs is always a poor.  In some educational institutions the numbers of staffs vary with their official statistics.  Where a staff from one department who is well versed in particular subject needed to teach class for other department at same time. Various malpractices have been traced out from these institutions like fabrication of output, wrong advertisement about their institutions depicting some facilities which are not exist in real but shown in the advertisements and in their official documents.  These institutions sometimes lure students with wrong misrepresentation like without getting any license or approval or licensing to start course they do by their own willing.  Students who studied these courses will suffer when the regulatory authority which derecognizes due to improper registration or due to poor standards.  One such recent incident took place in Chennai recently. A girl who finished anthropology from Tamil University applied for the post of lecturer job in the department of History in a Government-aided college. Initially the college accepted her qualification and intended to recruit that girl, but one of our very old traditional Universities in Chennai had derecognized her qualification to be appointed as lecturer in History department.  As she has finished degree in anthropology but applying in History is against the norms of our educational system. The University has failed to look what the University Grants Commission  (UGC) who is the statutory authority for higher education system in India. The UGC recognizes everyone who has completed their course in anthropology and can join as lecturer in History department in any college once they meet the required educational standards. 

           

The Government sows the seeds of discrimination in the young minds of the student even before joining the school by asking their community certificate. These students who after submitting their certificates join in those educational institutions but they realize only when they mature in the society.  These students feel that there is a line between them in caste, creed and in status.  Where the higher income earning family students join CBSE or Anglo-Indian schools tend to keep their educational status in their way of life.  We can see the difference among the students between English medium to students studying in mother tongue and also between students from rich to poor.  Uniforms are meant to eliminate the difference among the students, but the tiffin boxes never.  Rich family student lunch will be high in nutritional content along with the snacks whereas the poorer one having low nutritional content food.  Religion based scholarships, bus passes and separate hostel facilities for various categories of students discriminate the school going students.  The seed sown will develop into a tree when they join college or a university for education.  These institutions with separate hostel facilities show the ugly face of castes. Instances of various incidents like where a backward class students refuse to take food cooked by scheduled caste chefs and scheduled castes and other backward class students do not take food together in some colleges have been noted throughout the country which demoralizes the society as whole. 

              The private education donates not only the capital fees from the students they discriminate the student where the rich who can afford these education study in that institutions and get placed in some big private multinational company or our countries private companies. The poor students pursue some low graded institutions after their graduation goes for Government jobs. In search of jobs they would lose their enjoyable life where the rich students need not to worry as they have some business to look after their parents.  These private institutions which seek lakhs of money where they put forth restrictions like that both the parents should be educated. Even though the number of parents who are interested to join their schools are booming every day.  The parent’s dream that their children should one day became a person with good job in hand and earning a high income in society and could bring back the money invested for their education.  These are the students who are later indulging in society and also against our culture.  The poor student with rural background proved to be consistently an ethically eternal in society.

            Many of our countries technical institutions are located in south and the number of students who complete in engineering and M.B.B.S face difficulty in finding jobs.  Even the Government is not in a position to offer such a burgeoning job seeking educated graduates to give job. The rural student who are lacking in communication skills fail to land in suitable job, whose positions are seized by rich family backgrounds with recommendations from politicians muddle the administration where-ever they go.  With the introduction of Right to Education the constitution mandates all private and Government schools to give 25% reservation for students from backward sections.  The Constitution also necessitates the parents to give their children education between the age group 6 – 14.  Therefore it became compulsory for the States to give free education to all sections of student between the age group 6-14.  Failing to do with this provision will lead to penalization.  Various statistics taken by Non-Governmental as well as Governmental organization depicts the sorry picture that girls from rural background and Muslim community lagging behind the urban and other Hindu and Christian groups. Cultural and religious hindrance should be broken so as to include these sections in the inclusive development. Malala Yosufzagi who was shot by Taliban some months before recovered from the wounds and now she made a speech in United Nations insisting for women education worldwide. Our country’s Muslim community should look her contribution for women education and must break the hurdle. The education given to men will promote his growth but the education given to women will help promote the family and society as a whole.

         

  Our country’s education is impregnated with so many constraints where the learnt people finds job abroad and work for other county’s development where the people with less educated or of low standard try to get themselves in government jobs and make the administration blamed by the whole society for rendering poor services and private institutions which attracts young talented students in the society who were left by the Government propagates those institutions to develop further. The Government’s investment in the educational sector and scholarships goes in vain when it fails to select proper students from the society who are talented and it paves the way of brain drain.  The Government has to appoint various committees and conduct discussions with the students and researchers, to review our subjects standardization and bring it in line with the international standard where the young mind should be attracted towards science and they have to contribute the growth of their own discipline instead of studying for their own growth. 

Zero budget Farming and Organic Farming - A comparison

            Zero budget Farming and Organic Farming - A comparison

            A miracle in the agricultural practice started with the discovery of zero budget farming.LiterallY. it means there is no money farmers required to spend in starting agriculture, but we can reap the benefit without any harm to the soil and crop altogether.  The only expense in this type of farming is maintenance of crop which is several times less than the chemical fertilizer used farming. The credit goes to “Subhash Palekar” of Maharashtra who after serious research and experiment found out the zero budget farming. Many argue that this method of farming is imitation of organic farming.  Unlike the organic farming the cost of the fertilizer preparation is very less or completely null.  The organic farming is highly scientific, it involves analysis of soil, water crop and many entities.  Production of fertilizers in organic farming like vermicomposting is sometimes expensive to small farmers of India who owns land less than one acre and too it is subsistence farming.  But in the zero budget farming a farmer with single cow can prepare fertilizers from the cow dung and urine can be applied to acres of land devoid of any other expenses.  It has been proved in Karnataka where the zero budget farming is practiced highly by large farmers and in the rest of the country few farmers practicing here and there.  The advantage of zero budget farming is farmers need not to spend anything from their hand.  The process of zero budget farming is easy to apply and any illiterate farmer can do without any special knowledge.  The value of products from the zero budget farming is high in demand in the marked for its benefit.  The land can be reclaimed back to the earlier stage that is given a new life.  Labour requirement is not needed largely.  The crops and plants grow naturally and no need to feed any nutrients in anti-natural way.  Despite the advantages the scientific way of farming cannot be neglected at all.  The new farm practice should be the combination of both the zero budget and scientific farming.  Where the farmers can prepare fertilizer by their own cost from the cow dung and from the various available domestic items.  The inputs should be met by their own without depending on any external sources or any big investment.  They have to learn the knowledge of soil, crop and water applications and their efficient usage.  In the farmers suicides statistics of 2001 Tamilnadu stands with 985 suicides ranking 8^th overall, Thanks to the Tamilnadu government schemes and policies. 

Recommendation for Future progress

The delta region lands should be rejuvenated with the scientific rational way of land rehabilitation.  The underground water level should be increased by constructing new ponds, lakes, tanks in each and every village panchayat.  The rain water harvesting should be made compulsory in this region.  Indiscriminate use of electric motors/ bore wells must be regulated in order to check ground water depletion.  District Industries center scheme of vigorous extension agencies started in 1978 should be extended to all villages with the background of their crops where they are produced in large quantity.  Storage and processing of food crops and other crops is important work that needs to be done.  The government should start agro based small and cottage industries near to the production area.  This will stop the migration of farmers moving towards cities in search of job.  The Government should make legislation to stop the real estate demons from encroaching the agricultural land and plotting of agricultural land for construction should be bring back to the agricultural activities.  Computerization of land records is the important need of the hour.  The pass books, patta books should be issued very quickly to the farmers to make them ensure a distress free administration.  The role of e-governance should be widened to agricultural activities it should impart knowledge to all the persons irrespective of land they possess.  Camps, classes and training should be given to each village in various agricultural and its related activities.  The harvested crops and food products needed to be sold in the market.  So procurement units should be created in all the panchayat levels, where the farmers can able to sell any products including the domestic products at a proper price. Educational loans scholarships to be given to the students from agricultural background.  The persons practicing agriculture are deprived of all other benefits, so there should be quota for agriculturalists family members in the government job.  Most of the civil and criminal cases arising out of skirmishes between parties of farmers or cases related to agricultural land or farmer being the applicant should be given free charges in for their cases in all the courts of India.  These recommendations will fructify the agricultural practice and enlighten a new life in the farmers of cauvery delta as well as to the whole India.

Failures of State in Agriculture

Laggardness of Finance and Market

            Land owners in India can be classified into marginal holders with less than a hectare, small holders with land between 1-4 hectares, medium holders with land between 4-10 hectares, and large holders with land more than 10 hectares.  Where the marginal holders are 59%, small holders are 32.3%, medium holders are 7.2% and large holders are 1.2% in 1990-91.  Most of the delta farmers perform subsistence farming except the rice and sugarcane which are sold in market after their own consumption. The farmers face yet another kind of ordeal while selling their products.  The minimum support price announced by the Government should meet their ability to survive to practice the agriculture.   For the rice crops the Government opens procurement places, but most of the farmers merely sell their products in nearby rice outlets. As most of the procurement places are too far from the cultivation only the big farmers can sell their products with high cost of transportation. 

            Large land holders with their huge agricultural products yielded from their land earn much more than small holders and marginal holders. The small and marginal holders who sell their meager quantity of products from in local market land after their own consumption. The big farmers receive various credits from the Government showing their large lands and they can survive even in any kind of haunting circumstances.  But the small farmer’s condition is highly pathetic. In some places in Tamilnadu the big farmers who bought tractors from the loans given by banks did not repay the loan as the Government had cancelled their agricultural loans sometimes back in 2000’s. So they got tractors free of cost. The small farmers received only subsidies for fertilizers and could buy some equipment with loans and credits. The maintenance of such equipment is a herculean task than practicing farming.  The growth of agriculture is deteriorating and now the condition of low production or zero production is being realized in many parts of the delta region. 

                                       Revolutionary Impacts and New Farming

           

The Revolution in agriculture once hailed as an important phenomenon in Indian agricultural practice is now considered as curse to the whole farming.  Chemical fertilizers eradicated farming in most parts of our country, including the flood prone area of Punjab and Haryana which experiences low production and water depletion.  Without any deep analysis the Government has let the foreign fertilizer manufacturing companies like Monsanto, Mahyco and various capitalist with the aim of making the third world countries depend on the developed western countries. The capitalists lobby the government of the developing countries, convincing them a huge return for making the agricultural land into their clinical laboratories for all their experiments.  Our country not only losing the valuable agricultural land to the capitalist outside but also large tracts of land are being given to the real estate monsters who constructs many buildings without realizing the importance of farming  and believing only in the own prosper.  The poor farmers were denied their right to hold agricultural land by removal of the article 31 from the constitution which entitled them the right to hold property. They are living in their own land as debtors and many people who practiced farming migrated to cities in search of alternative job for their sustenance.

            The chemical fertilizers not only made our land infertile but it has had serious health implications to the whole people in the society.  Whoever consumed these chemically fertilized food products are highly susceptible to several kind of new diseases like cancer, sterility and so many to count, which can be identified by the number of patients visiting the hospitals every day standing in a big queues. This enormous increase of patients is mainly due to intake of chemically contaminated food.  One has to clearly feel that many people in our society like the “Gypsy” community or the roaming “Kurava” tribes never approach hospital for treatment as they are devoid of all health issues, because they lead a natural way of life. Whereas we the people leading sophisticated and high standard of living in the developing society lead an artificial life which is highly mechanized.  Now the people realized a way to poise their life without disturbing the nature. It has been rightly called “Sustainable Development” which means not compromising the future need of our progeny leading a rational life with minimal use of natural resources.  Sustainability in farming is performed by Organic method of practicing it. 

Organic farming is a rational approach in farming in the 21^st century.  In the earlier Revolutionary way of agriculture we used chemical fertilizers thereby damaging the nature.  But the organic farming prohibits any form of chemical usage in the land.  The scientific method predominates the organic farming.  Instead of chemical fertilizers the organic farming uses earthworm and domestic made natural products like neem and its byproducts are used for the fertilization of land and crop.  In the organic farming there are some disadvantages that the cost of making fertilizers is expensive and the farmers need scientific knowledge about the land and the crop to be grown.  It cannot be practiced by small land holders who practicing subsistence farming.  Big farmers can practice the organic farming for their land with the credits they receive from the Government.  The organic farming unlike the chemical fertilized farming cannot give high yield spontaneously.  Its gestation period is too long, so small farmers have to incur the expense in the earlier time. So there is chance that they may still be apprehended to moneylenders or expecting loan from the government. The knowledge of organic farming is poor among the farmers at present though they are aware that the chemical fertilization has eradicated their farming but they are still reluctant to find alternative way may be in fear of huge economic burden or if any other farming practiced would require heavy investment.  This is the reason the organic farming is growing in a slow pace.  Nowadays people are aware of the organic farming but learning the skills in the organic farming is difficult task to them.  They are not guided properly by the government or they are illiterate to understand the organic farming or reluctant to search the organic farming practiced by few others due to their financial constraint.  Can the organic farming applied in the delta region and rejuvenate the lost fertile land is a highly debatable question.  To start organic farming in the delta region involves huge investment from the government, various agricultural officers in these districts should be informed of organic farming and camps should be conducted at all the blocks to villages.  Training should be imparted to all section of the farmers.  Propagation of organic farming and its benefit should be within the reach of all people.

            The application of chemical fertilizers in the delta region inhibits the habit of using fertilizers in an indiscriminate manner reduced the crop yield and fertility of the soil.  It has also made farmers highly debt.  Farmers who seeks loans and credits from the government has increased, but very few farmers are getting high loans and able to practice farming while the rest of the farmers are left to suffer. The repaying capability of loans by farmers is very low even among the large land holders. Farmers spending from their own pockets are loans made from private lenders leave them in condition as debtor forever and frustrated members commit suicide due to intense pressure from the money lenders and humiliation they face in the society.  Private companies mushroomed around the fertile regions of delta mainly to propel their economic growth in the pretext of improving the failed crop to high yield. Farmers who fall prey to the bait of the colourful advertisements face yet another economic loss.  The private company members do  unnatural way of passing the mineral to the crops and to the plants, thereby creating a stage where they alone the final Xavier to the crop. Making the farming highly technical oriented.  The anti -natural way of feeding the nutrients to the crop cannot be done for a longer period of time. 
The government should weed out these newly grown money minded people selling the bogus and useless products in an attractive manner also from dragging the farmers to debtor forever in life. No farmer has stopped using chemical fertilizers even after it proved to be failure to bring fruit. Farmers applying fertilizers again and again so as to increase production without realizing that their land had died already.  

           

The delta region once considered a flood prone area in the country nowadays can sustain any kind of flood as the ground water has been depleted and flood water will runoff quickly to sea and evaporate due to high temperature because of global warming. Rich land owners who are the main culprits of water depletion in the delta region. They make bore wells up to 500 feet beyond the previous level of 250 in search of good water sources. The governments free current to the big farmers help their greediness. The electric motors running continuously for several days sucks out water from very deep and the continuous usage of the chemical fertilizers requires more water and the evaporation and global temperature destroys the whole land impossible to live. The production even though is very less. People who are economically stronger makes bore’s one for their domestic purpose in their house premises and another one or two to their agricultural land for farming purpose.  With the large scale boring of land make the fertile region slowly turning to a dry land in future course of time if this process of indiscriminate boring continues soon the delta will turn into a desert and very few lands will remain fertile like the oasis in the desert.  The water scarcity during the summer season is severely felt by the people, rich people with their bore wells and tube wells meet their domestic need, but the poor people are left to roam with empty pot in search of water. The highly alarming news is there are many farmers who have applied for free electric current waiting for the Government approval if given current free to them surely the will be death blow to agriculture in the delta region once for all.  

DELTA IN DANGLE (Agricultural Crisis of Cauvery Delta)

Delta in dangle

The Cauvery Delta region comprising the disticts of Thanjavur, Thiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Cuddalore, Trichy and Pudukkottai exists in Tamilnadu which is famous for its fertile alluvial soil. The  river Cauvery drains 28 taluks of  6 districts in the eastern  region of central Tamilnadu, with Thanjavur district comprising an area of 56.74 lakh hectare,  Trichy and Ariyalur districts comprising an area of 32.69 lakh hectare, Cuddalore district comprising an area of 7.26 lakh hectare, Pudukkottai district comprising area of 3.39 lakh hectare. The people of this delta region used to cultivate paddy crop thrice a year namely Samba crop (June – September) with an area of 2.99 lakh hectare, Kuruvai crop (June -July) with an area of 1.68 lakh hectare and Thaladi crop (September- November) with an area of 1.44 lakh hectare, besides other crops like Black gram (1.42 )lakh ha, Greengram (45,909) hectare, Gingelly (10358) hectare, Cotton (2711) hectare, sugarcane and coconut also cultivated in the rest of  period after the rice cultivation gets over. This is for the above reason the Delta region with in particular Thanjavur district is called “Rice bowl” or “Granary of Tamilnadu”. 

                      

         

Prior to modernization and globalization there was no real estates and people felt proud of having agricultural land and they were looked upon in a high status in the society. In the ancestral period water was drawn from the canals and bore well/tube wells from underground, as there was no scarcity of water and Cauvery river “The Ganges of south” provided ample water even during the lean period. Water from the Cauvery reached till the end of the land and people stored water in the reservoir by constructing lakes, ponds and tanks in the nearby paddy fields for their irrigation, which was used for irrigation during the summer season. Each family had bullock cart along with 2 or more ploughs and bulls for ploughing their agricultural field. Labourers were readily available. People who own land engaged along with the agricultural labourers happily in farming. Many poor people from Ramanathapuram district or ‘Therkuseemai’ in our slang come with their family and stay in the land owners house during the cultivation period. They were paid both in cash and kind of the cultivation. Rice cultivation requires large number of labourers. These people even stay after the rice cultivation once get overs and involved in any other agricultural practices.  Paddy seeds are selected and they are sown in the nursery after few days of its growth they are shifted to agricultural land for planting in the field. Women workers participate more than men during the course of the planting the newly grown paddy crop.  Old women used to sing beautiful songs, many times without any lyrics; each and every agricultural women knew one or many songs or at least humming rhythm.

       

    The eating habits of those time among the agricultural workers were completely different from the present time cooked domestic food. Ragi, maize  and wheat porridge was the common food. Rice was rare. Food would be served in palm leaf. Workers cut palm leaf nearby the land and fold it into a cup like structure to hold the porridge served. The name of the folded palm leaf is called “Mattakanji”. The term ‘mattai’ denotes the palm leaf and the ‘kanji’ refers to the porridge or any other good served. Rice cultivation is labour intensive so large number of people engage in field without any age variation. To serve the whole labourers food from home comes in a big utensil with “Agappai” or “Aapai” to serve the food. Fried chillies or onions are usually preferred side dish.  Rice cultivation needs large quantity of water and high temperature to grow.  The bulls tied with the ploughs were used to rake the field. Cow dung and domestic wastages were dumped before the cultivation to make the land highly fertile. The ploughs mixes the wastages with the soil and increased the soil nutrients. Paddy crops after their maturity were cut by the labourers and thrashed in the field itself to remove the rice. The hays were collected and tied in several bundles which were later loaded in the bullock carts and brought to home which were used as fodder to cows and bulls in the home. The rice thus collected from thrashing the crop against and wood or rock were packed in sac these too brought to home in the same way as the hays. Agricultural labourers would receive one sac of rice and some money for their work.

Thrashing Paddy

There was a drastic change in the agricultural pattern with the introduction of automation and scientific way of improving the productivity by using fertilizers and large quantity of water.  The rich people started buying tractors and fertilizers to produce high yield from the idea mooted by the Government. The production of all crops increased manifold within a short period of time and land owners earned huge income during their earlier period. It was the 1960’s were our country faced severe shortage of food. Government sought help from American scientist “Norman Borlaug”,” , who along with Indian scientist involved in intensive chemical fertilization of land to produce high yield. It gave immediate result, food crisis ended in country and India had surplus of food which could be used for exporting.  They named the practice of farming “Green Revolution”. Green Revolution increased the production of rice, wheat, and pulses and the remaining crops were left to deterioration. The Green revolution required large quantity of water for irrigation.  The people in the delta region too started the high yielding method of chemical fertilization farming.  Water stored in the reservoirs drained quickly and people started making bore wells in their agricultural land from mere 150 feet to 250 feet. The water was enough during the earlier period of time but later the necessity of water increased tremendously with the continuous use of chemical fertilizers. Before the 1960’s water was drawn from the well using the bulls tied to a pulley which hangs above the well; the other end to a big bucket which draws our water from the well and the method of irrigating the land is called “Etram”. Though agriculture is  labour intensive the demand was met with the available labour supply from the Ramnathapuram districts and from local labourers.  But the advent of chemical fertilization led to the killing of all the organisms in the soil, making the yield decreasing year by year and finally to a state where the soil is dead completely.  The rich people who bought tractors for plough, instead of bulls used to dug the land. The tractors dug up more than a feet exposed the soil nutrients and organisms to intense sun’s heat. Earthworms considered as the farmers friend died in the land due to severe heat reaching the deep layer of the soil.  The moisture retention capacity of the soil became low due to direct exposure of land to sun.   Hence water is required in plenty for the crops to withstand the high temperature.  The loss of micronutrients and organism could not be supplied with the application of chemical fertilization.  As the fertilizers required more water than the earlier natural way of farming.  

The delta region belongs to new alluvium type of soil enriched every year with the Cauvery river which bring nutrients with them fertiled the soil. The soil is enriched with phosphorus and potash but highly deficient in nitrogen.  The deficiency can be rectified by using the nitrogen fixing bacteria’s like rhizobium, clostridium and azosphyrillum.  Even hemp plant grown in the field after their maturity when dried in the same field can help in fixing the nitrogen in the soil.  The growth of fertilizer manufacturing and selling in retails shops and big outlets nearby every villages are alike the growth of cancer causing cells in our body.  As the former affects the land leading to death of soil and the latter inhibits cell growth with ultimately leads to death. The fertilizers like urea, DAP (Diammonium Phosphate) and pesticides like Endosulfan, Dichlorvus. Phosphamidon, Quinalphos, Methylparathion are easily available in the private company shops and some in government co-operatives.  Did not the government and various agricultural scientists know that usage of chemical fertilizers will make the soil dead?  First it killed the soil friendly micro- organisms, earthworms and other pathogens necessary for soil growth.  It reduced the micro and macro nutrients of the soil and made a condition that such nutrients can only be replenished by further applying of chemical fertilizers.  It depleted the underground water source making the agricultural work in future impossible to do.