Pokkali Rice Cultivation in Kerala

Rice is the staple food of majority of the world population. Rice is grown in large number of countries. In Asia, rice has been cultivated for more than 10,000 years. Among the various traditional systems of rice cultivation, the water logged Pokkali rice cultivation are centuries old organic system. This system utilizes the symbolic relationship between rice and prawns. This is a natural system of cultivation which relies upon monsoons and sea tides. Rice resides form feed for prawns and prawn excrement forms fertilizer for rice, which makes it ecologically stable and also reduces the input. Pokkali system has naturally evolved in the central strip of Kerala, southernmost state of India. The area where the system evolved is unique in its ecological features highly suitable for rice cultivation. The present social and economic system makes it very difficult for maintaining the system in its original form. Even with government efforts to promote the organic system, the Pokkali fields are diminishing at an alarming rate. The traditional system of rice cultivation, Pokkali has to be conserved as an agricultural heritage of Kerala.