Economic and Political Weekly

agricultural activity, mainly work in paddy fields, forms around 70 percent of all economic activity in Kuttanad. Almost all of the paddy growing lowlands in Alapuzha, Kottayam and
Pathanamthitta districts lie in Kuttanad region. Total area under paddy crop in this region during the year 1986-87 was 112.43 thousand hectares. It amounts to 16.58 percent of the total area under crop in Kerala in that year. In the same year the region produced 210.17 thousands tonnes of rice production. The region has also helped the state to retain its relatively better position in rice productivity in the all India level. During 1986-87 the per hectare productivity of the crop in Kuttanad region is found to be 1834 kilograms which was 7.38 percent higher than the state level average productivity. Both the area and production of paddy at the state level had shown negative growth rates during the second half of the eighties. Even though area under the crop in Kuttanad also had declined during this period, the average annual rate of decline had been comparatively lesser. As against the negative growth trends in production at the state level Kuttanad region recorded positive growth trends and the average annual growth rate in per hectare rice productivity of the region is also found to be comparatively higher during this period. The relatively better performance of the
Kuttanad region in all these respects had prompted the Indo-Dutch Mission to state that the Statistical data on acres and yields show a less disturbing picture of paddy cultivation in the Kuttanad area than for Kerala as a whole.
Kuttanad region accounted for more than 18 percent of the paddy growing areas in 1990-91. Within a period often years from 1990-91 to 1999-2000 area under the crop declined from 101.17 thousand to 57.87 thousand hectares. Meanwhile, the percentage share of the region in the states total area under paddy declined to 16.54 showing that the rate of decline had been sharper in this region. In the same decade total production of rice in the region decreased from 227.61 thousand tonnes to
152.16 thousand tonnes showing an aggregate decrease of 33.15 percent. The percentage share of the region in the state’s total rice production had also shown a
10
District wise figures of Alapuzha, Kottayam and Pathanamthitta were added to estimate the total area and production of rice in Kuttanad region and per hectare rice productivity is taken as the weighted arithmetic mean of the productivity of the three districts.

marginal decrease during this period. Coming to per hectare yields, Kuttanad region provides a different picture. Throughout the decade the average productivity of rice in this region had been significantly higher to the state level average. The comparative advantage of the region in this respect rose from 15.6 percent to 19.38 percent in between 1990-91 and 1999-2000. Annual growth rates in area, production and productivity of paddy in Kuttanad region during this period are found to be -6.02 percent, -4.38 percent and 1.77 percent respectively while the corresponding figures are estimated as -5.08 percent, -3.74 percent and 1.41 percent. In brief the comparative analysis regarding the paddy farm sector of Kuttanad region and Kerala clearly shows that the performance of the former had been comparatively better till the end of the eighties. However, since the beginning of the nineties the performance of the region both in terms of area and production of paddy had begun to deteriorate at unprecedented levels. Area, Production and Productivity of paddy in Kuttanad region during the period 1990-2000 are given in table 1.3.

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