Government sanctioned 176.98 crore Rupees for kole land development

A sum of 176.98 crore Rupees has been sanctioned for development of kole land, announced by  P. C. Chacko, MP and head of the Thrissur-Ponnani Kole Development Council.

The first installment of Kole Development Package whichcomprises of 123.52 Crore  that will be given from the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF), sanctioned by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) on 19 July 2013.The Other installment is of 53.46 crore Rupees  from the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY).

The total allocation for the kole package over three years will be 429 crore Rupees (300 crore from RIDF, 114 crore Ruees from RKVY and 15 crore Rupees from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research).

The package is directed toward doubling rice production in kole land. It is important here to note that at present farmers are engage in oruppoo which is one harvest a year farming. This should be changed to iruppoo (two harvests a year) cultivation.

So in order to make Iruppoo farming possible new bunds will be constructed along a 126 km stretch.

Thrissur-Ponnani Kole Development Council is working hard to eradicate the the traditional irrigation systems in kole land such as petti and para which had been found to be inefficient because of their high power consumption. Around 1000 such systems should be replaced by vertical flow pumps.

About Kole Wetlands

Kole wetlands, cover an area of 13632 hectares in Thrissur and Malappuram districts. It is a Ramsar site, a wetland of international importance, designed under the Ramsar Convention. It accounts for about 40 per cent of the State’s rice production. They extend from the Chalakudy River in the south to the Bharathappuzha in the north.