Mon May 12 12:35:55 UTC 2025: ## Kerala Farmers Protest Year-Round Shrimp Farming Threatening Pokkali Paddy Fields
**ALAPPUZHA, Kerala, May 12, 2025** – A growing protest is brewing in Alappuzha, Kerala, against plans to allow year-round Vannamei shrimp farming in traditional Pokkali paddy fields. The Kerala State Janakeeya Prathirodha Samithi (KSJPS) claims this expansion will severely damage the environment and livelihoods of local farmers and fishers.
The KSJPS argues that continuous shrimp farming, which requires saline water, will contaminate groundwater, salinize the land, and destroy the unique Pokkali farming system. This integrated farming method, recognized with a Geographical Indication tag and listed on the UN’s red conservation list, involves a “One Rice and One Fish” cycle, cultivating both rice and fish in the same field. The group warns that the practice will destroy paddy and vegetable crops, fruit trees, and freshwater aquatic life, impacting hundreds of livelihoods.
The protest is further fueled by concerns over alleged support for the shrimp farming initiative from a faction within the ruling Left Democratic Front. The KSJPS demands clarification from the government regarding any amendments to the established “One Rice and One Fish” cycle and points to environmental issues caused by Vannamei shrimp farming in other states as a cautionary tale. Currently, saline aquaculture is only permitted in Pokkali fields for five months of the year, outside the rice cultivation season. The KSJPS emphasizes the crucial role of rainwater collected in the fields during the monsoon season in protecting groundwater from salinization, a benefit that year-round shrimp farming would negate.
First Piper 