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Thrissur District - A Profile |
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Thrissur is one of the major districts in Kerala and Thrissur, situated in this District, is considered to be cultural capital of the state of Kerala. Thrissur District has an area of 3032 sq.km. with a population density of 903 per sg.km. The total population as per 1991 census was 27,37,311 out of which 20,17,095 is rural. The District has 74,168 farmers comprising 11,064 females; and 1,82,266 Agricultural laborers including 79,143 females and arow1d 1,19,745 nW11bcr of marginal workers.
Located about 250 km. north of Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur forms almost mid point of the state, with eastern boundary touching Tamil Nadu border and western border reaching Lakshadweep sea. Characteristic partition of high land, midland and coastal plains arc there in this District.with relatively poor establishments of industrial concerns, the mainstay of the population is on Agriculture.
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Thrissur District: Selected indicators for 2000 A.D. |
| Pandanus cultivation |
Demographic particulars are pointed in Table 1. The female domination in population strength indicate a ratio of 1.12. More than 60% of the population is comprised, in the area wedged between sea and the National Highway No. 17 which traverse lengthwise touching all the places mentioned above. Of which, above 75% female population is under the grip of poverty and unemployment. From Table 2 it can be seen that 12.9% of total population (356,357) is Scheduled Caste/Tribe. Uplift of this group numbering 46,062 needs special emphasis. |
Very poor job opportunities brought marginal worker's number to 13,291 (Table 3). Total cultivators works out to 4,503 numbers and those who engaged in the Agricultural sector as Laborers is 6,714 (Table 4). Representation of main workers comes to only 3.14% over total population (Table 5). The situation gets worsen further with statistics of holding size. Table 6 indicates that a total number 6,327 holdings are below 0.02 Ha. In addition 6,165 Ha is owned by 54,832 holdings in the range of 0.02 to 0.5 Ra. Even in such highly fragmented miniature holdings another blowing aspect also hits. That is, cropping intensity does not give any appealing picture (Table 7). Coconut is the principal crop with no substantial inter crops. Thus it is evident that the income from such tiny holdings with monocropping system will not yield any subsistence level expected. by a considerably higher size of population. |
| Traditional engagement, by 39,199 farm women, lies in mat weaving using leaves of Pandanus plants. Extremely low income generating profession is being followed because of eager for their subsistence. In the absence of any potential for off farm income (pI. see Table 8), the farm women converted themse1ves as full house wives. But attempt for earning supplementary income forces them to spare their off time in mat weaving. However, viewing poverty alleviation and empowerment of rural women, it is found that SFAC’s intervention in this juncture would be significant for achieving social equity and financial efficiency. Thus the project. |
| Objectives |
- to enhance net incremental income of small farmers.
- to develop hitherto unattended potential in agricultural sector, by exploiting economic importance of Pandanus.
- to augment the self employment programme traditionally followed.
- to improve financial status of rural women below poverty line, with no disturbance to their establishments.
- to upgrade the craftsmanship involved in mat weaving.
- to prevent extinction of the traditionally acquiring artisanship.
- to eliminate exploitation in marketing of mats by intermediaries.
- to empower farm women with organisational and institutional support.
- to fetch permanency in regular income.
- to develop managerial abilities among rural women.
- to offer social equity by encouraging social facilities.
- to promote environmental soundness.
- to bringup eliteness to societies by offering due recognition to rural population.
- to support rural farmers with research and development.
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| Constraints |
| Unawareness of the plant's economic importance prevent its population increase. Farmer's tendency to substitute boundary planting with other sophisticated but costly means reduce Pandanus population. These create shortage in raw material for generating supplementary income. And this leads to environmental degradation unknowingly.
Another technical constrain prevailing is absence of any mechanical support to easen curing of leaves, weaving techniques for value addition etc.
Feeling little stress in capital investment, the farm women usually satisfy with what they receive for their products, ignoring physical exertion involved.
Handling difficulties generally prevent the unorganised producers to take the product to market sites. And this boost up intermediary’s exploitation and further reduces bargaining power.
No organisational support is there to reduce the producer consumer gap.
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