The trend is fast catching on in Kerala where labour cost has become prohibitive than elsewhere. So much so that even for farmers' own domestic consumption they prefer buying paddy or rice to cultivate paddy themselves.

Increasing cost of cultivation and also lack of irrigation facilities are generally cited as reasons for abandoning paddy cultivation.

Ubrangala Gopalakrishna Kunikullaya spoke to The Financial Express about the prevailing trends in Kerala.

UG Kunikullaya, who has served as the panchayat (Ubrangala and Kumbdaje panchayats) president for three decades, has also been associated with agriculture for about half a century now, besides being member of various farmers' associations.

Excerpts:

On doing away with paddy cultivation: Paddy cultivation, particularly in Kerala, is becoming more and more difficult. I for onestarted phasing out paddy cultivation over the past four to five years. In the past two years I have completely stopped paddy cultivation. Even for my household consumption we have been buying rice from the market. Increasing cost of labour and lack of irrigation facilities are the main problems. In the coastal belt the cost of labour is higher than the interiors.

Hiring or owning mechanised tillers and tractors also adds to the mounting expenditure. Moreover, in the generally small patches of lands held by small farmers, one can't even use tractors or mechanised tillers for which large tracts of farm lands are required. In Karnataka canalised irrigation facilities are available in various places. Compared with Kerala, the cost of labour in Karnataka is cheaper. So, farmers in Kerala have been abandoning paddy cultivation by and large. Daily wages for agricultural labour in Kerala is upward of Rs 60 to Rs 100 for gents and over Rs 40 for ladies.

Considering all these, farmers in Kerala have been shiftingfrom paddy cultivation to cash crops like areca nuts and coconuts. Areca nut and coconut trees have a life span of sixty to seventy years. Though paddy cultivation has a shorter gestation period compared with the four to six years gestation of cash crops like coconuts and areca nuts, the economics involved in paddy cultivation works out comparatively more expensive than cash crops.

On trends in cashew nuts: Cashew trees generally have a life span of ten years of which three to four years are spent in gestation. After ten years trees can be used as fuelwood only. Replantation becomes a must thereafter. The 1997 cashew year has been quite bad considering that production reduced to 50 per cent of normal because of lack of moisture in climate during the three months of winter in 1997 beginning November. Rains were also scanty during both monsoon of 1997 and `tula varsha' (September-October).

On price trends in cashew nuts with shells: Cashew nuts have come a long way from the worst years oftwenty years back. Twenty years back cashew nut growers used to get Rs 4 to Rs 5 per kilogramme of cashew nuts with shells. In 1997 the growers got Rs 30-35 per kg of cashew nuts with shells. In 1998 cashew nuts with shells fetched Rs 40 per kg.

On trends in areca nut prices: Story of areca nuts also remained the same during 1997. Water famine for areca nuts has caused heavy damage to production. As for price trends, in 1997 peeled best (mora variety) areca nuts fetched Rs 100 a kg. In 1998 `mora' fetched Rs 91 a kg, while patwala variety fetched Rs 76-78 per kg. And there were third class varieties which fetched Rs 30-35 a kg during 1998. Till 1980, the lowest variety of peeled areca nuts used to fetch Rs 20,000 per khandi (one khandi is 250 kg). In 1997 the same variety fetched Rs 22,000 to Rs 25,000 per khandi (of 250 kg). This fell to Rs 16,000 to 17,000 per khandi in 1998.