The revival of India's climate-resilient heritage grain

Over the last few years, the coastal districts of Ernakulam, Alappuzha and Thrissur in the southern Indian state of Kerala have witnessed the revival of Pokkali - a traditional, salt-tolerant rice variety grown in the tidal wetlands.

The tallest paddy plant in the world, Pokkali grows up to two metres with its grain-bearing head remaining above the brackish flood waters that inundate coastal Kerala every year, as climate change-related rising sea levels and frequent floods pose growing threats to the region. 

Pokkali cultivation can be traced back to the 14th century, when a catastrophic flood washed rice seeds from the surrounding hills into Kerala's coastal belt. Local farmers subsequently developed a uniquely symbiotic paddy-and-prawn cultivation process.

Pokkali's Impact on  the environment

This indigenous farming method is climate-adaptive, as it can tolerate salinity and soil acidity, as well as submergence in rising sea levels and floodwater. 

Pokkali fields are also known for its carbon sequestration efficiency. After chopping off the panicles during the rice harvest, farmers leave the stalks in the field to decompose, and the soil sediments and turn into natural compost. This effectively captures and stores carbon dioxide in a natural way that results in biological soil amendments and boosts carbon sequestration.

The Cultivation Process

The farmers create a naturally organic environment where tidal tracts are used alternately for rice farming and prawn, shrimp and, sometimes, fish cultivation.

During high tides in the monsoon months, water is let into the field by opening sluice shutters, which also ushers in prawn larvae along with the water flow. During low tides, excess rainwater is released through a bamboo screen that keeps the shrimp and prawns in the pokkali fields.

When rice is harvested in September, the grain-bearing head is cut off and the stalk is left to decompose in the water, which adds to the soil fertility and becomes the organic feed for the resident aqua population in the tracts. 

The fields are then left idle for the next few months until March, when prawns and shrimp are harvested, the shedded scales and droppings further enriching the fertility of the soil. The syncretic rice-prawn farming culture, carried on rotationally over centuries, is purely organic.

"We supplement our income from the sale of prawn and shrimp grown in our rice fields," Joseph Chirayil, a farmer from a coastal village in Alappuzha district, told FairPlanet.

Causes for the grain's Decline

The rusty-red and robust grain, rich in protein and antioxidants, was one of Kerala's chief staples for many centuries. But the last few decades saw a sharp decline in Pokkali cultivation despite the heritage grain having earned the Geographical Indication tag in 2009 for its unique flavour and taste of terroir.

The problem was its low yield of only about 1.5 tonnes per hectare vis-à-vis four to five tonnes of the newly-developed high-yielding rice crops, such as Manupriya and Jaiva. 

The relatively low returns from pokkali have made a paradigm shift in the basic farming process: more and more pokkali farmers have been using their tracts for prawn harvesting only for higher returns, a move that has disrupted the integrated, climate-adaptive farming system.

"The hard manual labour is also putting off our next generation from taking up pokkali farming," said Chirayil, who is a fourth generation farmer. His two sons took up office jobs and relocated to Chennai, and were not keen to carry on farming in their ancestral land.

Rapid urbanisation of these traditional farmlands and industrial pollution of wetlands have also posed serious threats to pokkali cultivation. 

According to State Planning Board data of 2010-11, pokkali fields had reduced to only about 5,000 hectares from more than 25,000 hectares in just over two decades, and actual cultivation takes place in less than 1,000 hectares.

A 2017 media report indicated that, according to the Kerala Fisheries department, 2,200 hectares of the grain are regularly farmed and 5,000 hectares are occasionally farmed.     

the 2018 Kerala Flood and its effect on Pokkali

The devastating flood in Kerala in the monsoon of 2018 was the worst in the last 100 years. It made international headlines and left more than 400 people dead and thousands homeless. Kerala’s fertile plains were ravaged and, according to The Times of India, a study by the state government, World Bank, UN, Asian Development Bank and the European Union estimated a loss of Rs 2,723 crore (USD 330 million) in crop damages and Rs 3,558 crore (USD 430 million) in crop loss.

However, it was noticed that Pokkali fields mostly withstood the ravages of the calamitous flood and stood tall above the brackish waters.

The genetic ability of Pokkali to withstand soil erosion, strong winds and tidal ingress made it a cynosure of rice research centres, and the grain forged its way back into recognition.

Reviving Pokkali cultivation

With socio-economic changes firmly in place, farm labour is not easily available as before and mechanised cultivation in waterlogged terrains of this coastal region can be extremely challenging. 

Some of the local banks like the Palliyakkal Service Cooperative Bank have designed farmer-friendly schemes intended to encourage the struggling sector.

"We provide collateral-free finance options with six-month interest holiday, and have facilities such as seed banks and direct purchase of pokkali production at a guaranteed price point higher than market rates," Sanil V. V., the bank's secretary, told FairPlanet. "We are also helping farmers employ labourers, a key factor in this labour-intensive production process."

Additionally, agricultural scientists are trying to bolster pokkali output with developing high-yielding variants. A notable success has been Vyttila-11, recently developed by a team at the Kerala Agricultural University, which yields about 5 tonnes per hectare. 

Though still on trial and not yet fully commercialised, Vyttila-11 seeds have also been sent to farmers in the Sunderbans delta of the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, where it has been successfully cultivated in saline-rich tracts, which are prone to frequent cyclonic storms and saltwater incursions.

Sustainable travel initiatives are also linking tourists and Pokkali farmers through agritourism in the coastal belts of Kerala.

Deepa Krishnan of Cochin Magic, a travel company that curates immersive tours to Kerala's pokkali fields, told FairPlanet, "The tour creates additional income for several people who provide activities like boating, cooking and farming. However, the biggest contribution which tourism brings is in making the farmers feel proud of their natural heritage."

"With changes in climate patterns, indigenous food grains like pokkali, borne out of our traditional ecosystems, can ensure food security for our future," farmer Joseph Chirayil concluded. "Large-scale farming and an effective marketing of this nutrient-rich rice variety is what is needed."

Image by Deepak Kumar.