Abstract

Thanniyam gram panchayat having an agrarian economy located at Anthikad Block Panchayat 20 km from Thrissur in Kerala, India. For generations, the men and women of panchayath have survived on agriculture. Although the village has good rainfall due to the inadequate supply of fresh water through the canals that have left their fields dry. Improper barrage management at the estuarine mouths has caused saltwater to move inwards into their fields. The farmers have used fertilizers and pesticides for a long time, which resulted in the high cost of cultivation. Most of the farmers left farming 17 years ago and hundreds of hectares became Culturable Waste- Land. Then in 2020, the village adopted organic farming under the initiative of Sarvathobhadram-Organic. This paper examines the changing trend in the area after adopting organic farming, increase in production, and success of the convergence method. It also attempts to find out various constraints faced by farmers during the paradigm shift from conventional method to organic.

Keywords: Sarvathobhadram-Organic; Thanniyam gram panchayat; Organic joythi rice; Convergence method; SHG’S; Jeevamirtham; Natural methods