Pokkali rice farming is showing tentative signs of revival in parts of Ernakulam’s coastal belt, but the scale of the recovery remains small compared with the agricultural landscape that has been lost. In areas including Kadamakkudy, Varapuzha, Kottuvally, Ezhikkara, Vypin and Chittatukara, farmers, local institutions and community groups are trying to bring fallow fields back under cultivation after decades of decline.
The story of Pokkali is therefore not only about a traditional rice variety returning to the fields. It is also about what happens to low-lying coastal land when farming becomes financially difficult, labour becomes scarce and urbanisation changes the economic value and use of land. Mathrubhumi’s report describes a crop that once defined the rice-growing landscape around Kochi, but now survives in only a fraction of its former area.
The figures indicate the extent of that contraction. Pokkali paddy fields once spread across approximately 24,000 hectares in parts of Ernakulam, Thrissur and Alappuzha. That area has now reduced to about 5,000 hectares, according to the report, while actual Pokkali rice cultivation takes place on less than 2,500 hectares. In Ernakulam district, cultivation is currently reported across about 350 hectares.
The remaining cultivation is concentrated in pockets of the coastal region. Varapuzha, Kadamakkudy, Kottuvally, Ezhikkara, Chittatukara and Vypin continue to retain fields, as does the Chellanam area. The geography is significant: Pokkali grows in brackish-water zones where saltwater enters the fields. Its survival is closely tied to the continued existence and management of a distinctive coastal farming environment.
That environment has come under pressure from rapid urbanisation and human activity. The report does not present the loss of paddy fields as the result of a single policy or one development project. Instead, it records a cumulative decline in which agricultural land has reduced, cultivation has become less viable and many paddy fields have turned fallow. This makes Pokkali a useful indicator of the wider relationship between urban growth and low-lying coastal land.
Pokkali cultivation also faces a difficult income equation. Farmers have been pushed away from the crop because returns from farming have weakened and adequate labour for harvesting has become difficult to find. In some places, cultivation was retained mainly because it could be combined with fish farming. This seasonal relationship between rice and aquaculture is part of the traditional logic of the landscape, but it has not been enough to prevent large-scale abandonment.
The crop itself is adapted to conditions that make conventional farming difficult. Pokkali is cultivated without fertilisers and is described in the report as a fully natural variety with considerable resistance. It grows in coastal areas affected by saltwater and can reach approximately 1.5 metres in height. A single panicle can contain around 300 grains. These characteristics are not simply agricultural curiosities: they explain why the variety remains relevant in a region where salinity and water conditions shape land use.
Yet the qualities that make Pokkali distinctive have not translated into a corresponding expansion of cultivation. The rice received a Geographical Indication certificate in 2009 and the Plant Genome Community Award from the Union agriculture ministry in 2010-11. It has also been elevated as a special rice. The report nevertheless notes a gap between this formal recognition and the condition of the farming system itself. Recognition has strengthened the identity of the crop, but has not by itself restored the fields or secured the livelihoods of farmers.
This gap between heritage status and everyday viability is central to the Pokkali question. A crop can have a GI certificate, a protected cultural identity and a reputation for ecological suitability, while its cultivation continues to contract. The administrative challenge is therefore larger than branding or market recognition. It includes access to seeds, labour, finance, field management and a land-use framework that prevents environmentally sensitive paddy areas from disappearing.
Seed availability is one of the problems identified in the report. The shortage of Pokkali seed has encouraged experiments with other varieties, including Chettivirippu and Vyttila-8, which were developed from Pokkali. This illustrates both the value of the genetic resource and the risks created when the original cultivation base becomes too small. If the farming area continues to shrink, the difficulty may not only be the loss of a traditional crop but also the weakening of the systems that maintain its seed and knowledge base.
The emerging recovery is being built through collective action rather than through individual farmers alone. Some farmers are returning to cultivation. Workers associated with the rural employment guarantee programme have expressed willingness to participate in harvesting. Employment-guarantee groups and Kudumbashree groups have entered collective farming. According to the report, these interventions have helped bring green cover back to fields that had remained fallow.
Cooperative institutions have also provided financial assistance. Local self-government institutions and agriculture offices are supporting the return of cultivation, while the State Pokkali Land Development Agency works on the welfare and development of Pokkali cultivation and farmers. This institutional network matters because the crop’s decline reflects several linked constraints. No single department can solve the problem if land remains available but labour is absent, or if labour is available but farm income is inadequate.
The proposal to retain Pokkali fields as heritage farming villages adds a land-use dimension to the discussion. The demand has existed for some time because these fields are environmentally fragile and have a distinct agricultural character. Such a designation, as described in the report, would recognise that the paddy landscape is not merely vacant land waiting for another use. It is also a coastal system that supports a specialised form of farming.
For cities such as Kochi, this distinction is important. The decline of coastal paddy fields is not an isolated rural issue outside the urban system. The fields sit within a region shaped by metropolitan expansion, transport links, settlements, aquaculture and changing land values. When agricultural use disappears, the consequences are distributed across the wider landscape, even if the immediate decision is made at the level of an individual field or paddy collective.
The available evidence does not establish that the current revival has reversed the long-term decline. Cultivation remains below 2,500 hectares across the wider Pokkali region and stands at about 350 hectares in Ernakulam district. The report describes the recovery as limited, with cultivation returning to only some fields. The positive signs therefore represent a change in direction, not a restoration of the former rice-growing economy.
The institutional response also highlights the difference between support and permanence. Financial assistance, community farming groups and local government involvement can help farmers restart cultivation. But the continued existence of the fields depends on whether farming can remain viable over time, whether seeds are available and whether labour arrangements can support operations such as land preparation, sowing, weeding and harvesting. The report identifies each of these activities as part of a once-common agricultural cycle that has now become increasingly rare.
Pokkali’s future consequently depends on whether coastal land is treated as an active productive landscape rather than as residual land. The report provides evidence of both pressures: the area has fallen from approximately 24,000 hectares historically associated with the crop to about 5,000 hectares of remaining Pokkali fields, with less than half of that currently cultivated. It also records a countertrend in which farmers, community groups, cooperatives and public institutions are bringing some fields back into production.
What the evidence confirms is a sharp contraction followed by a modest, institutionally supported revival. What remains uncertain is whether that revival can move beyond scattered fields and become a durable regional farming system. The developments that require continued attention are the area brought back under cultivation, the availability of Pokkali seed, the participation of farmers and labour groups, the role of local institutions and the protection of the remaining coastal fields from further loss. The return of green cover is an encouraging sign, but the larger measure of recovery will be whether Pokkali can remain a viable use of Kochi’s shrinking coastal landscape.
