Rice bowl of Kerala trying to regain lost glory

Kuttanad, the rice bowl of Kerala, is making an effort to regain its lost glory of producing quality rice in traditional way, which it lost long ago.

The paddy farmers has started converting paddy into rice, which was the monopoly of Kaladi-based rice mills, to end the exploitation of farmers and to create more employment opportunities to the farm workers.

The rice produced from Kuttanad, known as Kuttanad Kuthari, had a great demand among the Malayalees worldwide. However, when the rice mill owners started exploiting the farmers, the production of rice had slowly shifted from Kuttanad to other places.

Kuttanad Vikasana Samithi (KVS), a charitable society, has came forward to help the farmers in producing quality rice by using traditional methods. Self Help Groups (SHG) of the farmers were formed and the paddy they cultivated was processed traditionally and converted into rice.

The unemployment problem of the farm workers after the 'puncha' season could also be solved to a certain extent if the paddy produced in Kuttanad is converted into rice here itself.

Three SHG's have been formed by the KVS to start producing rice in traditional way. The paddy is boiled in vessels and later dried in sunlight. These paddy later converted into rice in small rice mills. The complaint on the presence of small stones in the rice produced from Kuttanad has also been rectified with the purchase of two de-stoning machines.

It is pointed out that one SHG can convert 50 quintals of paddy daily into rice. The profit of the farmers increase in the range of Rs 100 to 150 per quintal for rice than that of selling paddy. The functioning of the three SHG had created employment opportunity for 50 farm workers.

During the 'puncha' season, it is estimated that 1.25 lakh tonnes of paddy is produced in Kuttanad. Of this, nearly 80,000 tonnes are purchased by the rice mills at a cheaper rate from the farmers.

There were allegations that the rice mill owners mix 'puncha' rice with low quality rice brought from Shimoga and Punjab and sold on the brand name of Kuttanad rice.

KVS has already marketed nine tonnes of traditionally made rice on the brand name 'Kuttanad Kuthari' from Kuttanad to the Thodupuzha farmers open market.

The marketing was started with the cooperation of Kerala Agricultural Marketing Society. The high quality rice is given to the consumers directly at a price lower than that of other brands available in the market.

KVS is also planning to spread its marketing to other major towns in the State in a phased manner.