THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Agriculture Department is seriously considering a proposal of the Kerala Land Development Corporation Ltd (KLDC) to establish ‘agriculture villages’ by converting the barren land masses in North Kerala into cultivable land. As per the proposal, the government will take over uncultivated land for a period of five years and start cultivation. This will be an integrated project to be implemented with the support of all the agencies under the Agriculture Department. There are also several other project proposals connected with the cultivation which include animal husbandry, fish farming and tourism. The primary focus will be to harvest rainwater which can be used for multiple purposes. KLDC managing director P G Raveendranath said that a final decision in this regard would be taken by the government. If the project gets the nod from the government, a pilot project will be implemented in one panchayat, which can be extended to other panchayats later, he said. ‘’There is sufficient water in Kerala which is not properly utilised. This will be collected and used for fish farming first, then paddy cultivation and also for animal husbandry purposes,’’ he said. According to the proposal, the unused land taken over by the KLDC can generate profit from cultivation in five years. The land will be identified and schemes for irrigation and development of infrastructure would be executed. The activities can be carried out with the support of other agencies such as Seed Authority - for providing seeds, Warehousing Corporation - for storing agriculture products, Animal Husbandry Department- for cattle rearing and Milk Marketing Federation for marketing milk products. The roads for tractor movement in these land can be used for tourism purposes. The land can be made more attractive by providing basic facilities, including restaurants and small commercial activities for tourists. The cattle dung can be used for production of biogas, which can be given free of cost to the villagers. As soon as the project starts making profit, it can be shared by the land owners. After five years, when the term of the project finishes, a society can be formed which will offer a more active role for the land owners to reap handsome profit. However, the details of this would be worked out later. The proposal suggests that an agreement can be signed by government agencies or departments to market the products. The products manufactured from here can even be branded and sold in the open market. To make the area more environment-friendly, energy saving mechanisms would also be used. Wind and solar energy can be used for power generation.
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