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.