This is only the continuation of a phenomenon for long under planners' scrutiny. From 8.75 lakh hectares in 1970-71, area under rice cultivation had dropped to 4.31 lakh hectares in 1996-97. Over the last 25 years rice has lost its pride of place with paddy's share in the total cultivated area shrinking significantly.

During 1970-71, 30 per cent of the total cultivated area in the state was under rice. This has dropped to 15 per cent now.

Rice is only an indication of the total shrinkage in the area under food crops. Food crops area has come down to 8.8 lakh hectares in 1998 from the previous year's 14.8 lakh hectares. As a result, food grains productionhas dropped from 8.71 lakh tonnes to 7.65 lakh tonnes. Rice production in 1970-71 stood at 12.98 lakh tonnes. This has dropped to the last estimated level of 3.87 lakh tonnes. During 1997, total rice production was estimated to be 4.3 lakh tonnes.

The state has been able to maintain a semblance of some gains only in the field of productivity. Productivity has gone up from 1,483 kgs per hectare in 1970-71 to 2,023 kgs per hectare in 1996-97. This is an improvement by 36 per cent over the last two-and-half decades.

The major reason behind shrinking rice cultivation is the exorbitant rise in cost of production. It has been estimated that about 55 per cent of the production cost of a kg of rice goes into paying wages.

The average daily wage for a worker in the paddy field in 1970-71 was Rs 5.09. This has gone up to nearly Rs 100 per day now, a whopping increase of 1,711 per cent. The price of paddy has not increased in such a proportion during the period.

From rice, cultivators are shifting to other cropslike banana plantations and tapioca cultivation which have proved to be more lucrative. In these areas cost of production has not gone up as rapidly making it profitable to most farmers.

According to studies, cost of cultivating a hectare of paddy in 1989-90 was Rs 6,284. This went up to Rs 9,023 in 1992-93. At the same time, for tapioca cultivation the cost per hectare was Rs 6,327 in 1989-90 and it went up to Rs 8,134 in 1992-93.

Apart from rising cost of production, technological backwardness and lack of awareness among cultivators have also been cited as reasons for the decreasing paddy cultivation in the state. During the Eighth Plan period, Kerala Agriculture University brought out nine new varieties of rice. However, they had no better acceptability among the farmers than the earlier varieties like Annapurna, Triveni and Jyoti.

A breakup of the areas under rice cultivation in Kerala shows that some districts have shown greater drop in acreage under cultivation than other districts. Nearly 60 percent of the total rice cultivation in the State is carried out in the districts of Thrissur, Ernakulam, Kottayam and Palakkad. While Palakkad has been considered the rice bowl of Kerala, Kozhikode has the least area under paddy cultivation.

Among the districts, Thrissur has recorded a shrinkage of 10,567 hectares under paddy cultivation. In Ernakulam, the shrinkage has been 7,836 hectares, in Kottayam 6,446 hectares and Palakkad 7,550 hectares.