Food productivity of Kongu Region Now and Then!

Yuvasenthilkumar Ramalingam
Research Associate, E-Extension centre, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore 641003 E-mail: sryskhtech@yahoo.co.in

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

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 Indias 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.

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 1 Salem 2 Namakkal CANALS 7830 21730
4 TUBE WELLS OPEN WELLS

86335 46879

2100 4915

3 Coimbatore 4 Erode 5 Karur 6 Dindigul 7 The Nilgiris

19608 14659 5187 2368 0

96357 52474 32807 89847 504

53991 91904 16114 7901 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)

% of Net Net area area Area irrigated irrigated to irrigated (excl.suppl. Net area more than District wells) sown once 1 Salem 97973 45.1 21707 2 Namakkal 74318 42.1 13828 3 Coimbatore 10960 170511 54.1 4 Erode 23687 161217 53.6 5 Karur 54709 49 2681 6 Dindigul 104672 41.3 7399 7 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 CHOLAM (JOWAR) 18248 22319 84620 4970 29932 47264 1 CUMBU (BAJRA) 3158 508 446 1125 5938 4611 0

District 1 Salem 2 3 4 5 6 7 Namakkal Coimbatore Erode Karur Dindigul The Nilgiris

PADDY 27101 13231 7085 33599 14866 17536 1702

MAIZE 10778 1133 20505 10332 82 31114 0

District RAGI KORRA VARAGU SAMAI 1 Salem 435 567 11384 1316 2 Namakkal 575 202 96 281 3 Coimbatore 168 3 1 20 4 Erode 3 12 36 8724 5 Karur 14 0 0 1 6 Dindigul 215 14 96 262 7 The Nilgiris 14 8 0 9 Source: Agricultural Statistics, Government of Tamil Nadu, 2005

OTHER CEREALS 243 80 14 1 0 22 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) BENGAL RED GREEN BLACK District GRAM GRAM GRAM GRAM 1 Salem 187 2240 6324 8709 2 Namakkal 135 2589 5192 7048 3 Coimbatore 407 2884 3909 4439 4 Erode 142 1125 2936 3954 5 Karur 0 493 210 3407 6 Dindigul 566 1159 4544 4216 7 The Nilgiris 0 0 0 0 Source: Agricultural Statistics, Government of Tamil Nadu, 2005
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HORSE GRAM 4106 2502 5307 7877 1173 4244 0

OTHER PULSES 14403 2768 14365 10339 734 13832 1

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 doesnt 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 2 3 4 5 6 7

Salem Namakkal Coimbatore Erode Karur Dindigul Nilgiris

7213 11124 8828 27595 5737 5473 9

1017 355 1422 793 717 1376 29

3217 1748 1973 7731 257 31 5

41 24 824 1 0 255 1030

District

CORIANDER

TAMARIND

POTATO

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Salem Namakkal Coimbatore Erode Karur Dindigul Nilgiris

121 87 1418 5 7 147 3

362 472 978 295 119 4559 0

1 0 0 92 0 2620 1976

District

SWEET FRUITS & POTATO TAPIOCA MANGO BANANA GINGER ONION VEGETABLES

1 Salem 18 22425 2491 2 2 Namakkal 71 17399 1162 6 3 Coimbatore 2 774 3799 1 4 Erode 18 4771 969 1 5 Karur 233 1316 507 0 6 Dindigul 102 267 3 13342 7 Nilgiris 5 77 27 468 Source: Agricultural Statistics, Government of Tamil Nadu, 2005

516 1076 1033 772 63 1197 1

34715 26535 23477 16889 8017 41728 6517

1077 1421 6833 5597 4278 3333 480

Table 6 Area of Oil seeds

District GROUNDNUT GINGELLY SUN FLOWER CASTOR

1 Salem 9944 330 33010 2 Namakkal 2996 415 50276 3 Coimbatore 18115 161 60504 4 Erode 15074 988 38485 5 Karur 5747 4824 1336 6 Dindigul 14418 15292 720 7 Nilgiris 4 44 0 Source: Agricultural Statistics, Government of Tamil Nadu, 2005 Table 7 Area of Non-Food crops
District COTTON TOBACCO

2328 5765 264 1266 72 85 0

1 Salem 168 11377 2 Namakkal 3021 0 3 Coimbatore 8037 574 4 Erode 5070 3473 5 Karur 338 5 6 Dindigul 2750 1661 7 Nilgiris 0 0 Source: Agricultural Statistics, Government of Tamil Nadu, 2005 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.

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. No. of Over No. of Grey exploited Blocks Blocks (65 -85%) & Dark Blocks (85 100%) 1 Salem 16 3 2 Namakkal 10 3 3 Coimbatore 12 9 4 Erode 4 7 5 Karur 2 2 6 Dindigul 12 1 7 Nilgiris Nil Nil Total 56 25 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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District

No. of White blocks (<65%)

2 2 Nil 9 4 1 4 22

leading us towards an environment bankruptcy, which is the costliest affair for our future to offer. Its as simple as selling our future for todays 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 doesnt 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.

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