History

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High Value Agriculture

 Land Soil climate

Land, Soil and Climate

Land Utilization

 The Lakshadweep islands were once fringed by a thick growth of Tamara (Ternfortia boraginacea), Kanni ( Scaevola koenigii), Chonam (Pemphis acidula), Cheruthalam (Pemphis stronga), while inside large trees of Punna (Calophyllum inophyllum), Cheerani (Thespecia populnea), wild Almond and Banyan trees were found. The ground flora was thick and almost knee deep in certain places. The earliest settlers who came from the Malabar cost, brought with them the Coconut tree, their Kalpavriksha (the beneficent tree of heaven).  The high water table, nearness to the sea, gentle breeze, abundant sunshine and porous soil contributed the rich growth of the coconut tree which served the numerous needs of the early settlers. Even after centuries, the coconut tree maintains its supremacy in the domestic economy of the islands and even now it is the only crop of economic importance.

              The total geographical area of the islands is 32 Sq. Kms. Except for a few paches of low lying lands in Andrott and  Kalpeni, the entire cultivable area of 2689 hectares has been planted with coconuts. Paddy and millets were once cultivated on these low lying patches of land, known as thottam.  When coconut attained commercial importance, people shifted to its cultivation. The entire thottam in Amini and Kavaratti has now been planted up with coconuts. In Andrott and Kalpeni about 40 hectares are left out till 1955, where sweet potato, cowpea and plantains are grown after the rains. These areas get filled up with water during the monsoon and so the coconut can be planted only on ridges. The soil of Agatti is not fertile. Attempts was evidently made in the earlier times to construct a Thottam (garden) for the cultivation of paddy and cereals, but it was not successful. A sort of beans plantation and few betel vines were, however, grown in the garden.

             The earliest settlers had planted coconut trees only on a small scale. There were vast areas of waste land when the British took over the islands. The policy of the British Government was to let out such Government lands to the individuals on cowle ( a system of granting lands on improving leases). The cowle system boosted the coconut plantation covering the entire islands. There is a little  scope for further expansion of cultivation.

 IRRIGATION:

            The islands are blessed with copious rainfall. Many crops like pulses, solanacious, cucurbitacious, and tuber crops etc. can be grown successfully in the coconut gardens as inter crops without irrigation during the south west monsoon period. There is no scope of major irrigation works as there are no rivers or canals. Water supply in all the islands is from small wells which do not go very far below the coral substratum. Fresh water is available in these wells through out the year. For growing vegetables and fruits small pumps were used for irrigation. Agricultural gardens maintained by the Governments are irrigated from the wells with pump sets. It has been successfully demonstrated that by growing intercrops in the coconut gardens with proper irrigation, coconut yield can be increased considerably. But by increasing population and pressure mounted per unit area for human necessities and considering limited resource  of ground water table, irrigating crops with motor pumps had to be stopped rather totally banned.