KA Verghese is a pokkali farmer in the wetlands just south of Ernakulam, who grows the world's only strain of salt-resistant rice. As described in this piece, he is among a group of people attempting to switch back to a traditional cropping of alternating shrimp and paddy cultivation. But when there is no work, he also goes out to fish. This is particularly difficult during the monsoon.
"Because of the monsoon we can't go fishing for over three months, though we go from time to time. Of those three months, one month we can't go to sea at all. The houses here get dilapidated within two-years time because of the stagnant water. The quantity of fish is very low and we can't sustain ourselves. But somehow we have been going on. We want to bring this to the notice of the authorities, so future generations don't suffer."
Read Mridula Chari's previous dispatches here.
