A project submitted by the Regional Agricultural Research Station, Pilicode, Kasaradod district, titled “Development of kaipad in organic tidal wetland through mechanised farming, rice germplasm conservation and biodiversity” has received the government’s administrative sanction.
Kaipaid farming (called kole farming in central Kerala) is integrated rice cultivation and aquaculture in the coastal brackish water.
T. Vanaja, Associate Director of Research, said the project was funded by the World Bank and included in the Rebuild Kerala Initiative programme of the State government.
She said the project had been sanctioned considering the sustained efforts being taken by the Kerala Agricultural University since 2000 for the comprehensive development of organic, coastal, salinity-prone kaipad tracts of north Kerala.
Wetlands
The objective of the project was to establish a Research and Development Centre for comprehensive development of the wetlands of north Kerala, improve the production and marketing of the GI-tagged “Kaipad rice” by the Malabar Kaipad Farmers Society (MKFS), mechanisation of the marshy kaipad, empowerment of women, SC/ST farmers, and labourers under the patronage of MKFS.
