For centuries, the Cauvery delta has been of paramount importance for food security in southern India. The fertile delta is the site of lush paddy fields and vital canals. 

However, in the last decade or so, rising temperature, erratic and insufficient rainfall and poor irrigation supply has impacted rice production in the region. 

Smallholder paddy cultivators in the delta are finding it difficult to sustain costly, water-intensive modern rice varieties. Amidst these changes, high costs of fertilisers and pesticides has reduced the economic viability of rice cultivation. 

These lived experiences of vulnerable smallholders are pushing the farming community to look back to the past as a way forward.

The traditional practices to integrate soil, water and livestock in agriculture has the potential to help agrarian communities  overcome some of the above-mentioned challenges. 

Farmers in the ‘rice bowl’ of south India, the Cauvery delta, are reviving traditional ways of farming and shifting to more resilient traditional rice varieties, inspired by initiatives such as the ‘Save our Rice’ campaign. Of the 186,000 acres planted with traditional paddy varieties in Tamil Nadu, the Cauvery delta covers 42,000 acres. 

Findings from the Field

Seven years ago, Suresh, a farmer in Pattukkottai taluk in Tamil Nadu’s Thanjavur, turned to growing traditional rice varieties. Earlier, he cultivated hybrid varieties such as BPT-52, CO-45 and CO-50 based on the recommendation of the state’s agriculture department. 

When he began, Suresh was inspired by the efforts made by stalwarts like Nammazhvar and Nel Jayaraman. He now cultivates more than 10 traditional varieties of rice on his 15 acres of land. Many of the traditional rice varieties are grown during the ‘Samba’ season. These are indigenous paddy varieties that ripen after a comparatively long duration. Mappillai Samba (160 days), Karrupu Kavuni (160 days), Thooya Malli (130 days), Thanga Samba (145- 150 days) and Kichadi Samba (135 days). 

There are also a few varieties that take a shorter duration for the grain to ripen. These rice varieties are — Kullakaar (115 days), Thooyamalli (125-130 days) and Karunkuruvai (110 days). 

On the other hand, hybrid varieties such VNR-2245 and DRH - 775 take 90-95 and 97 days respectively. 

In terms of production, though the per acre yield of traditional rice may be lower than modern hybrid varieties, Suresh feels that the challenges are far lesser when cultivating the former. 

In case of hybrid varieties, seeds have to be purchased each season, but the traditional rice farmers don’t need to buy it and they can use their own seeds instead. 

And some traditional rice farmers say that they don’t need to sow or plant again because the rice grown in the field at harvest will sprout again the next season. 

Murugan from Thanjavur’s Peravurani taluk who has been cultivating traditional varieties for the past 15 years said, “Hybrid varieties might produce 10 bags per acre of land but Karuppukavuni (a traditional rice variety) yields four bags per acre”.

Most of the rice consumed in the present day is white in colour, and because of that, most of us remember only white rice when we think of rice. 

Hence, rice eaters now are habituated to eating polished rice. 

Rice grain loses much of its nutritional value when polished. It is believed that people are prone to lifestyle diseases such as diabetes because their routine diet has more quantity of polished rice. Traders polish and sell rice for the sake of taste and aesthetic. 

As opposed to these human interventions, traditional rice is found in multiple hues like white, red, black and brown. Every traditional paddy variety has a name based on its colour and qualities. For example, Mappillai Samba is red, Karuppu Kavuni is black grained rice and Thanga Samba has a golden shade. 

Krishnan, the farmer from Peravurani said that while rice grain contains six layers, the local mills will polish the rice and change its true colour and nutrition.

“If traditional rice is sent to modern mills, all layers will be peeled off and the rice will be polished and lose its quality. So, it should be processed in a separate mill. There are fewer such mills here where rice is not polished but only dehusked. So the farmers have to take their produce to the neighbouring district or town, and for that, they have to spend money on transportation,” the farmer added.

The different characteristics of these varieties make them easier to cultivate in the changing climatic conditions and water scarcity. Some of the traditional varieties are drought-tolerant, and can survive without irrigation for several days. The irrigation requirements for rice cultivation vary based on several factors such as local climate, type of paddy variety and soil conditions. Many of the traditional rice varieties have lower water requirements when compared with hybrid varieties. 

Suresh told us that hybrid varieties like BPT require constant water logging for crop growth. But traditional rice requires less water. 

Even if water remains for just a week after transplantation, the crop grows well. And irrigating the field once a week or in 10 days is enough, unlike hybrid paddy which requires more frequent watering.  

Another advantage of these varieties is that varieties like Karruppu Kavuni, which grow up to six feet, are also not damaged during floods. 

Even after lodging, the grains do not fall to the ground. But the thick long stalks are difficult to harvest using a combined harvester that is used commonly in the delta now. 

Much of the traditional rice varieties need manual harvesting. Untimely availability of labour and high labour costs is a big challenge for these farmers. 

“I reduced paddy cultivation only due to lack of manpower.  Traditional rice cultivation requires labour for harvesting and threshing processes (to extract paddy after harvesting),” said farmer Thirupathi from Pattukkottai taluk. Hybrid varieties are harvested using a combined harvester which yields threshed grain that can be packed directly into the sacks.

Modern rice varieties are chemical input intensive. “After completing my college studies, I started farming using chemical fertilisers to earn more income but I could not make that much profit. I was under debt. I realised that most of the investment in cultivation was going to vendors selling chemical fertilisers and since then, I switched to organic farming,” said Krishnan who has switched to organic methods. In traditional rice cultivation, diseases and pest attacks are relatively less as compared to modern practices. Often, farmers can prepare organic fertilisers and insect repellants at low cost, but in modern rice cultivation, they have to spend more on chemical pesticides and fertilisers.  

“Mother Earth is a living being and if we pour chemicals into it, it loses its true nature. Earth also breathes. Some people keep dumping chemicals so the earth gets choked.   The mind of humans and the fertility of the soil must be fertile. Only if the soil is fertile will it give what we ask for,” reflected Rajendran from Pattukottai taluk.

Traditional rice varieties are grown organically using natural fertilisers and pesticides, so it does not harm the environment. And only insect repellants are used, not insecticides, thus not affecting other insect species that are essential to the environment. 

This is an added advantage to the farmers as they can source the necessary inputs themselves in the current environment where they have to borrow and invest heavily in synthetic fertilisers and pesticides in hybrid paddy cultivation. 

All these varieties have unique flavours and high nutritional qualities. There’s a popular saying in Tamil — Unave Marundhu, Marundhe Unavu (Food is medicine and medicine is food).

Nowadays with a sedentary lifestyle, people are prone to various diseases. 

Many see health benefits in switching to old dietary practices. 

The Market Challenge 

The major challenge is the difficulty in marketing the rice after harvesting. Due to this, some farmers are now reducing the amount of traditional rice cultivation and some say that they have stopped cultivation.

Similarly, due to the fact that improperly grown rice using chemicals is available in the market at a cheaper price, the farmers who grow it naturally face difficulty in marketing it. 

“We are not able to sell at the proper price because some people are not growing properly (using chemical fertilisers) and selling at low prices. They do it for business. Because it is sold at a low price, people also go for it. But they don’t know how it was grown. Traditional rice is only good if it is grown organically,” Krishnan said. 

Mudfield Natural Farming, a company operating in Pattukottai, has encouraged more than 100 farmers to grow traditional rice organically. 

Their aim is to take the products produced by farmers outside and sell them. They are also conducting a training programme for them and students, who have done B.Sc in Agriculture. They conduct activities like these so that they can interact with the farmers. 

Their customers are urban dwellers from Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, etc.  Traditional rice varieties are sold at a higher price. For instance, Karuppu Kavuni is sold at Rs 140 per kg, Mappillai samba at Rs 98 per kg and Kaattuyanam at Rs 100 per kg. 

The turn to traditional paddy and cultivation practices presents hope for farmers facing multifaceted challenges in farming. However, most farmers are locked within large scale conventional cultivation practices by the political economy of agriculture development in India. 

Note: This study was done as part of the 'Policy Learning, Local Knowledge and Advocacy' (POLKA) project funded under the Water and Development Partnership programme at IHE Institute of Water Education, Netherlands.

Vivek Murugan and Jyoti Nair work with the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, Bengaluru

Views expressed are the authors’ own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth

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