addition to protecting the summer crop from water salinity also aimed to facilitate a second crop soon after the
puncha season. Eventhough the construction of the Bund had begun in 1958 it was commissioned only in 1975. The
Barrier is built across the Vembanad kayal connecting Vechoor in the east to Thanneermukkom in the south. Every year regulators of the Bund are lowered in December to prevent the entry of saline water into Vemband lake and remain closed till May when the discharges from feeder rivers improve with the pre monsoon rains. After the construction of this Barrier it is possible to raise a second crop inmost of the
puncha lands.
During the early sixties a
new strategy called Green Revolution was introduced in the farm sector of the country. As part of this new strategy an Intensive
Agricultural District Programme (IA DP) was initiated in which the two major rice producing districts of
Palakkad and Alappuzha were included. The basic objective of this programme was to combine all the essential inputs required for intensive production into a single package. Implementation of IA DP in Alappuzha district in which majority of the taluks in Kuttanad region lie, led to the beginning of anew era of intensive paddy cultivation using modern technology in this region. The participant farmers of the programme were provided with H Y V seeds,
chemical fertilizers, pesticides and improved farm implements along with adequate credit facilities, the use of which helped them to enhance the per hectare productivity of paddy. In order to takle the ever- growing menace of pests in Kuttanad
padasekharams a special project called the
Operational Research Project on Integrated Rice Pest Control in Kuttanad (OR P) was implemented in this region from 1975 to 1992. It was a joint venture of the Kerala Agricultural University and the State Agricultural Department financed by the
ICAR. The project adopted a strategy of applying genetic, cultural and biological devices along with the use of chemical pesticides. Pest disease surveillance and consultancy services through
agro clinics were the two major
programmes under this project, which had been successfully carried out in six selected villages in Kuttanad. Another developmental research project initiated by the Kerala Agricultural University and successfully implemented in
Kuttanad region is the Drainage Research Project on
kari soils. It aims to provide proper drainage facilities in the marshy
kari lands in North Kuttanad.
The project, which was started
in 1982, is supervised by the Regional Agricultural Research Station Kumarakom, which also coordinates the entire agricultural research activities going on in this region.
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