Ministers to meet for the resumption of paddy farming in Rani Chithira kayal.

ALAPPUZHA: Agriculture minister V S Sunilkumar said a meeting will be held in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday in connection with the resumption of paddy farming in Rani and Chithira Kayal paddy fields.
He was speaking after visiting the Rani Kayal paddy fields. He also directed the agricultural officials to conduct a study to find the short comings in the construction of outer bunds of these paddy fields.
It was in in the beginning of 2014, the district administration in association with the agriculture department began procedures for starting paddy farming in Rani-Chithira Kayal under Kuttanad package.
This 1400 acre Kayal was converted into a paddy field by Joseph Murickan alias ‘Kayal Rajavu’ around eight decades ago. He had successfully drained out this wide kayal (backwaters) and used mud bunds to create artificial paddy fields. He had re-written history, making below sea level farming a big success and opening new chapters in the world of farming.
The land in Rani-Chithira Kayal is now owned by about 2000 farmers. They had stopped the cultivation in 1994 following the continuous breaking of outer bunds and loss of paddy crops in natural calamities.
Following this, the farmers had leased their land to the Travancore Cements to mine mussel from the land. However, the company left the project after digging the Kayal and good efforts are now needed to make this Kayal useful for farming.