full length paper_ food productivity of kongu region

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Food productivity of Kongu Region – Now and Then! Yuvasenthilkumar Ramalingam

Research Associate, E-Extension centre, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore – 641003

E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

Indian economy is an Agrarian economy. The food production and food inflation

phenomenon is directly linked with pattern of agriculture, trade and consumption pattern. It is

essential to understand the coarse of development of Indian geography, agriculture and market.

With vast biodiversity, geographical regions and societies, it accommodates different varieties of

different food crops across the country. The ancient literatures say that modern India is divided

in to 56 desams (Countries) and several upa-desams (Sub-states). All these desams were formed

with based on the river basins and sub basins. Kongu desam or Chera desam is such one with

distinct Geo-Socio-climatic region formed in the upper catchment of the holy perennial river

Cauvery in the South India.

The modern Kongu desam or Kongu region lies mostly in the part of the state Tamil nadu

and it is one of the industrially developed regions in South India. This desam is identified with

the boundaries given in the olden literatures. It comprises Salem, Namakkal, Erode, Coimbatore,

Karur, Dindigul and Nilgiris districts. This region mainly depended on the dry land and partly

with irrigated agriculture. Being in the catchment region, the water resources were abundant and

readily available for agriculture. It grows wide varieties of food crops, cash crops and plantation

crops. It is an importantly a belt for turmeric, Tapioca, Sugarcane, Tea, Coffee, Milk, Cotton,

Banana and Vegetables. In the 21st century this region is marching towards the agriculture with

modern technologies and ideas and trying to retain its culture through agriculture. The food crops

productivity is highest in this region, with its gardenland conditions.

Though the Kongu region marches successfully, it faces series threat for its water

resources, soil fertility, animal wealth and the forests. The ancient systems of dryland agriculture

have turned to intensive farming and it has become the curse for its sustainability. Most of the

blocks in the Kongu districts were identified as grey blocks (highly exploited) for ground water

usage. The improper usage of water for cultivation for exports creating havoc. The village

shandies and the local production of pulses and vegetables were diverted in to centralized

production and distribution.

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The food prices and the food production costs were location specific. But the indirect

nationalization of labour costs in the name of National Rural Employment Gaurantee scheme is

breaking this barrier and the food prices were rising all along. Moreover the muscle power of

food production is replaced by petroleum power, which directly links the food prices to the

global food inflation system i.e. food production and transport in becoming oil intensive. The

minor rise in the petroleum prices would reflect in the food prices. But the government or the

people least recognizes it. It is important to form a local self-governing body with progressive

and intellectual farmers and the scientists to make comprehensive study on the loss of

biodiversity of food crops, animal wealth, grasslands, ground water, loss of traditional food

habits, encroachment of ponds and connecting channels, forests, etc to measure the intensity of

damage and find methods to re-settle them.

Key words: Food inflation and Kongu region, Environmental bankruptcy, Food inflation, Kongu

desam

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Food productivity of Kongu Region – Now and Then! Yuvasenthilkumar Ramalingam

Geography and Significance

Geography and history were highly interlinked subjects, which have to be studied

integrated. The mainstream history of post-independent India speaks about the colonial and the

pre-colonial kingdoms and underestimates our true ones. The local administrative systems of the

ancient kingdoms and its continuation were not properly researched. It is linked with the

geography of the land i.e. the rivers and its basins. Rivers are the cradle for civilization in any

part of the world. Moreover annual rain pattern decides the culture of a region. The Land of

Modern India or the Bharath Varsh is identified with the similar culture, where the monsoon or

seasonal winds blow. The monsoon land is further divided in to desams(countries) based on the

various river basins and sub-basins. Like that the ancient literatures list out 56 desams in Bharath

Varsh starting from Kasmeeram in north to Singalam in South. The river sub-basins have similar

climate, biota, soil, forests, societies and culture. This is the base for the Jargon of India’s “Unity

in Diversity”. The Modern India is a land of linguistic division. It essential to identify ourselves

based on the Socio-Geo-Climatic-Cultural river basins, rather than linguistic states.

Kongu region – A Socio-geo-climatic-cultural unit

The Konga desam or Chera desam is identified as a part of Tamil speaking countries in

the south behind the river Swarnamukhi in Kalahasthi. The other desams were Chola, Pandiya,

Thondai and Southern Magadha desams. The literatures in Tamil provide clear boundaries for all

these desams. The Kongu desam is also called as Hilly country as it is surrounded by ranges of

hills and undulated plains. The Palamalai hills in the north between Karnataka and Erode district

in North, Vellingiri hills between Kerala and Coimbatore in the West, Varagamalai

(Kodaikkanal) hills between Madurai and Dindigul district in south and Madukkarai in the east

between Kulithalai and Karur makes the boundary of Kongu country. The Kongu region of the

modern Tamil nadu encloses 7 districts viz. Salem, Namakkal, Erode, Coimbatore, Karur,

Dindigul and Nilgiris. The Kongu region forms the upper catchment for river Cauvery with

Bhavani, Noyyal and Amaravathi river sub-basins. This Kongu region has hot and moderate

climate with tropical deciduous forest in the undulated plains.

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Land of Kurinji and Mullai

The Tamil literatures divide Tamil region in to Kurinji (Hilly land), Mullai (Forest

plains), Neithal (Coastal plains), Paalai(Desert plains) and Marudham (Fertile irrigated plains).

Kongu region fells in to the Kurinji and Mullai. The Kongu region as described before is

surrounded by hills like Paalamalai, Vellingiri, Anamalais, Varagamalai, Kolli hills, Sherveroys,

Nilagiris in Western and Eastern ghats. The forests of those hills and the its continuation in the

plains form Mullai region. The Mullai land is used for doing agriculture by the agricultural

communities and the land is further divided in to 24 regions in the ancient days and had a strong

administration, established by Chera dynasty of Karur.

Rivers and irrigation projects

The modern districts of Kongu region has agricultural plains created from the forest

plains in the ancient times of Chera dynasty. Later the forests of the hills were colonized by

British region for building the Summer resorts and now they have become the plantations and the

tourists venues (Nilgiris, Kodaikkanal, Valaparai and Shervaroys).

River Bhavani, Noyyal and Amaravathi, the tributaries of river Cauvery form the

irrigation source and ground water source for the region. The ancient irrigation was once with the

wells and recharge ponds. The river margins were irrigated with checked dams in all the rivers

and the rice is cultivated. During the British regime they have planned for dams and hydro

projects. The Lower Bhavani irrigation project(LBP) was started in 1940s and a mud dam was

built along with the irrigation channels covering 250,000 acres in the Erode district. The first

Interbasin channel project called Parambikulam-Aliyar irrigation Project (PAP) was constructed

between the Periyar and Amaravathi basin to divert the excess water from Kerala to Tamil nadu

and storing water in Amaravathi, Thirumoorthi and Aliyar dams. PAP project covers more than

100,000 hectares in Coimbatore and Erode district. In 2005, the irrigated area under Canals, tube

wells and Open wells were given below.

Table 1 Irrigation Sources in the Kongu region

District CANALS TUBE WELLS OPEN WELLS

1 Salem 7830 86335 2100

2 Namakkal 21730 46879 4915

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3 Coimbatore 19608 96357 53991

4 Erode 14659 52474 91904

5 Karur 5187 32807 16114

6 Dindigul 2368 89847 7901

7 The Nilgiris 0 504 7 Source: Agricultural Statistics, Government of Tamil Nadu, 2005

The rainfed area form more than 50% of the area in the Kongu region. The following

table shows the net irrigated areas in the each district.

Table 2 Total Area Irrigated (in hac)

District

Net area irrigated

(excl.suppl. wells)

% of Net area

irrigated to Net area

sown

Area irrigated

more than once

1 Salem 97973 45.1 21707

2 Namakkal 74318 42.1 138283 Coimbatore 170511 54.1 109604 Erode 161217 53.6 236875 Karur 54709 49 26816 Dindigul 104672 41.3 73997 The Nilgiris 750 0.9 0

Source: Agricultural Statistics, Government of Tamil Nadu, 2005

Agriculture in the region

The traditionally the river margins were cultivated with rice and Banana and the

highlands had millets and animal breeding as the occupation. After Birtish, the irrigation projects

have extended the agriculture to cash crops like cotton, sugarcane, tapioca etc.

Area of major crops in 2005 (in hac)

The area of paddy cultivation is 7% to the total area of Tamil nadu however the area of

millets is high compare to the other regions of Tamil nadu, resulted from the habit of taking

millets and managing to the local irrigation availability. However, the area of millets have

reduced drastically compared to last four decades, replaced by few cash crop.

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Table 3 Area of Cereals

District PADDY MAIZE CHOLAM (JOWAR)

CUMBU (BAJRA)

1 Salem 27101 10778 18248 3158

2 Namakkal 13231 1133 22319 508

3 Coimbatore 7085 20505 84620 4464 Erode 33599 10332 4970 11255 Karur 14866 82 29932 59386 Dindigul 17536 31114 47264 4611

7 The Nilgiris 1702 0 1 0

District RAGI KORRA VARAGU SAMAI OTHER

CEREALS 1 Salem 11384 435 567 1316 243 2 Namakkal 575 202 96 281 80 3 Coimbatore 168 3 1 20 14 4 Erode 8724 3 12 36 1 5 Karur 14 0 0 1 0 6 Dindigul 215 14 96 262 22 7 The Nilgiris 14 8 0 9 2


The pulses is a significant in the region as the region holds more than 50% of area under

rainfed conditions. Namakkal, Dindigul and Salem district is traditionally a rainfed belt with

good rainfall distribution pattern is still the large producer of pulses in the belt. The pulses

cultivation is threatened by labour shortage, as the crop is labour intensive.

Table 4 Area of Pulses (in hac)

District BENGAL

GRAM RED

GRAM GREEN GRAM

BLACK GRAM

HORSE GRAM

OTHER PULSES

1 Salem 187 2240 6324 8709 4106 144032 Namakkal 135 2589 5192 7048 2502 27683 Coimbatore 4439 407 2884 3909 5307 143654 Erode 142 1125 2936 3954 7877 103395 Karur 0 3407 493 210 1173 7346 Dindigul 566 1159 4544 4216 4244 138327 The Nilgiris 0 0 0 0 0 1


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Sugarcane and Tapioca is highly industrialized crop in Kongu region which has replaced

many essential food crops. Though it is classified under food crops, it is a luxurious food crop.

The value added products from sugarcane like sugarcane, alcohol and Sago from Tapioca doesn’t

cater the basic needs of the downtrodden people i.e. Cereals and Pulses. Similarly the vegetables

were produced in huge amount for targeting the Kerala and Gulf market using our ground water.

Table 5 Area of Food crops (in hac)

District SUGARCANE CHILLIES TURMERIC CARDAMOM

1 Salem 7213 1017 3217 412 Namakkal 11124 355 1748 243 Coimbatore 8828 1422 1973 8244 Erode 27595 793 7731 15 Karur 5737 717 257 06 Dindigul 5473 1376 31 2557 Nilgiris 9 29 5 1030

District CORIANDER TAMARIND POTATO 1 Salem 121 362 12 Namakkal 87 472 03 Coimbatore 1418 978 04 Erode 5 295 925 Karur 7 119 06 Dindigul 147 4559 26207 Nilgiris 3 0 1976

District SWEET

POTATO TAPIOCA MANGO BANANA GINGER ONION FRUITS &

VEGETABLES1 Salem 18 22425 2491 2 516 34715 10772 Namakkal 71 17399 1162 6 1076 26535 14213 Coimbatore 2 774 3799 1 1033 23477 68334 Erode 18 4771 969 1 772 16889 55975 Karur 233 1316 507 0 63 8017 42786 Dindigul 102 267 13342 3 1197 41728 33337 Nilgiris 5 77 27 468 1 6517 480


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Table 6 Area of Oil seeds

District GROUNDNUT GINGELLY SUN

FLOWER CASTOR 1 Salem 33010 9944 330 2328 2 Namakkal 50276 2996 415 5765 3 Coimbatore 18115 60504 161 264 4 Erode 38485 15074 988 1266 5 Karur 5747 4824 1336 72 6 Dindigul 14418 15292 720 85 7 Nilgiris 4 44 0 0


Table 7 Area of Non-Food crops

District COTTON TOBACCO 1 Salem 11377 1682 Namakkal 3021 03 Coimbatore 8037 5744 Erode 5070 34735 Karur 338 56 Dindigul 2750 16617 Nilgiris 0 0


Food grains Productivity in the region

The intensive agriculture and the highest productivity of the food grains and others crops

were obtained in the region. However the new technologies and the international productivity of

food crops open up the scope for more productivity. The technologies like precision farming for

optimizing the water and other inputs and maximizing the productivity have created revolution in

the food production. The labour scarcity is increasing as the people move out of agriculture and

the mechanization is also becoming the necessity of the day. The location specific cost of

production is getting reduced as the labour cost for agriculture is nationalized by a commonly

called 100 Rupee employment programme or National Rural Gaurantee Scheme (NREGA). The

mechanized agriculture makes the agriculture more electricity and oil dependent. The food

inflation is thus directly linked to the oil price.

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Ground water in the Kongu region

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Though this belt flourishes with

agriculture, it has sold its ground water for high revenues and its suffering from acute ground

water shortage. The following statistics shows that more than 50% of the blocks in the Kongu

districts suffer from over exploitation of ground water. The removal of free electricity to

agriculture is the need for the hour, but this removal would cause rise the cost of production.

Table 8 Ground water Potential in Kongu region

S.No. District No. of Over exploited Blocks & Dark Blocks

(85 – 100%)

No. of Grey Blocks

(65 -85%)

No. of White blocks (<65%)

1 Salem 16 3 22 Namakkal 10 3 23 Coimbatore 12 9 Nil4 Erode 4 7 95 Karur 2 2 46 Dindigul 12 1 17 Nilgiris Nil Nil 4 Total 56 25 22

Source: Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board

Environment bankruptcy Vs Food inflation

The concept of mass production in agriculture is a costlier affair unlike in other

industries. It is a perishable commodity. It is a bulkiest one. The fruits and vegetables were once

produced in the small scale, in all villages and they have catered all the needs of the villages

through weekly shandies. Now-a-days the centralized production of few vegetables in Dindigul,

Coimbatore and Karamadai have lead to cheaper production of vegetables and most of the

village shandies get vegetables from neighboring wholesale markets. The vegetables were

produced for kerala and Gulf market out of our ground water. There is no restriction for ground

water usage, either ethically or administratively. Similarly, cultivation of Nendran banana for

chips for exporting to Gulf market and Sugarcane for alcohol industries, out of our ground water

is deflating our environment i.e. ground water and soil. The virtual water trade is killing the

Coimbatore district with Nendran banana, Coconut and sugarcane. Since the mass production

and transport of the food crops powered with the petroleum energies, the food inflation occurs

along with the motion of oil prices. Not only the food inflation but this improper agriculture is

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leading us towards an environment bankruptcy, which is the costliest affair for our future to

offer. Its as simple as selling our future for today’s greed.

Food productivity and inflation - Way forward for future

Food inflation is a national phenomenon but arise from the local demand and supply. It is

necessary to concentrate in the local production and trade of the daily moving foods like milk,

vegetables, fruits, cereals, etc. The luxurious environmental depleting crop for export and for the

urban markets indirectly increases the essential food production and leads the food inflation. In

the west the consumer movement initiated by the intellectual consumers associations, today have

lead to the local food movements (Slow food), ethical agriculture under the brand of eco-friendly

labels were popping up. Concepts like virtual water trade, carbon foot prints, ecological foot

prints were released by the scholars, as well as public.

The food inflation is a virtual phenomenon, which can be solved if the rural agriculture

“work for food” kind of programmes were brought in. But it needs bold political decisions on the

labour wages, free electricity, distribution of cereals in the public distribution system and

decentralized food distribution systems. The food grains were given as the harvest wage for the

agricultural labours once upon the time. It is still viable if the government chooses to remove the

subsidize rice in the public distribution system (PDS). Even in the british regime, the PDS was

providing staple foods as the grains. It is the duty of the government to educate the people about

the environment and the food policies and promote the local food and culture. If the government

chooses to grow with consumerism or liberal market economy they shall not remain that, market

will take care of everything. Because market needs be regulated with environmental ethics and

disciplines, ensuring that it doesn’t damage the livelihood, resources and the resiliency of the

environment. It is important to form a local self-governing body with progressive and

intellectual farmers and the scientists to make comprehensive study on the loss of biodiversity of

food crops, animal wealth, grasslands, ground water, loss of traditional food habits,

encroachment of ponds and connecting channels, forests, etc to measure the intensity of damage

and find methods to re-settle them.

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Literatures

1. Kongu Mandala Sathakam, Tamil Virtual library

2. Agricultural Statistics, Government of Tamil Nadu, 2005

3. Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board, 2003

4. Series of Interview with farmers and PWD personals in Coimbatore and Erode district,

TNDRIP project, Water technology Centre, Tamil Nadu Agricultural Univeristy,

Coimbatore

5. Yuvasenthilkumar R. and Beatrice B., Master Thesis, Perspectives of primary sector in

the booming economy of India – A Case study on Tamil Nadu, University of Kassel,

2009.

full length paper_ food productivity of kongu region

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