Chandra Sekharan, a 57-year-old farmer’s crop land is barely 50 metres away from the sea. From here, one can see the deep blue waters of the Bay of Bengal. At his farm, harvest of vetiver (Chrysopogon zizanioides), a perennial grass, is happening. A huge vehicle is busy uprooting this hardy grass for harvest. As vetiver is harvested, women in the farm collected them, carried it on their heads. They walk to a place where vetiver was towered up like a little hill. The women keep passing these roots and stacking them up.
In Cuddalore, tsunami devastated these lands first in 2004. The cyclone numbers have risen, threatening the livelihood of farmers here. Farmers generally grew cashew and casuarina here. In 2011, when Cyclone Thane struck, crops were lost, and farmers started to look at alternative crops. Chandra Sekharan says, ‘In 2011, when Cyclone Thane struck, casuarina trees broke, and were wiped out, and we could not do any sales. There was loss in lakhs. The government also did not give any compensation. When we tried to look at alternative crops, people told me to plant vetiver. And I started doing it.’
Cyclones have been increasing after tsunami, according to Chandrasekhar. He says, ‘Earlier there were lesser cyclones. It happened maybe once in a year or twice. It takes 4–5 years for casuarina to grow. For 3–4 years, it grows and then one year, there is heavy loss. Also cashew season is only for 3–4 months. If there is rain, there will not be any yield. In comparison, vetiver is a yearly yield. We shifted because it was profitable.’
Involvement of Youth
This story is from the January 2021 edition of TerraGreen.
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This story is from the January 2021 edition of TerraGreen.
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