region as well. In the second part we suggest certain remedial measures for the development of paddy cultivation in this region. 5.1 Current Problems At present the paddy farm sector in the study area is on the verge of a serious crisis and farmers are facing a host of problems like the nonavailability of required number of labourers during the peak crop season, declining profitability of the crop, militant trade unionism, slow pace mechanization, lack of easy credit and proper marketing facilities, recurring crop failures, uneconomic size of holdings and so on. Four to five years back in almost all of the padasekharams in the study area farmers used to raise a second crop called the varshacrop in addition to the traditional puncha crop. Unable to withstand the ever growing problems in paddy cultivation, at present the local farmers have reduced crop intensity by dropping the second crop and their fields are kept fallow for several months after the summer
