Livelihood shift from marine fishing to agriculture

“The disaster in the year 2004 brought sorrows and opportunities for development in my life” says
Mr. V. Ramachandran, aged 38, living along with his wife Ms. R.Kala and two childrens in Gounder Street of Naluvedapathy village (South) in Thalainairu block of Nagapattinam district, Tamil Nadu. Both of his children are under going school education. Fishing was the major income generating activity and farming in 11 cents of land, supplements income to fulfil the basic needs.

His family dwells in a mud walled house with thatched roof located within 500 meter from the sea shore. The two other thatched capsule houses located adjacent to the dwelling house is utilised for cooking and storing the agriculture produces. The natural elevation from the shore protects his houses from flash floods and tsunamis. However, he was unable to prevent his livelihood assets from the giant waves in the year 2004. The high tides caused by the earth quake resulted in unforeseen damages to the livelihood assets, which sunk the entire family in sorrow. The piece of agriculture land and two pits to harvest sub surface water was filled with sea slush. The catamaran and fishing nets were severely damaged.

After loosing all assets except the hope, he became a member of Kanniamman Vayalagam – an SHG promoted by DHAN Foundation, in the year February 2005. He said, “My prime objective of joining group was to revive the affected land and restore the livelihood assets with the support of our group”. He took a loan of Rs. 20400 from the group to revive the agriculture field and to repair the traditional fishing craft. But the rejuvenated fishing livelihood did not yield the similar income, which he gained before tsunami disaster. Hence, he made-up his mind close the fishing operations and focus on agriculture. For the first time he started cultivating medicinal plant locally called Karthigai Kilangu (Gloriosa superba) in 11 cents of land. The maiden experience provided better results and income. He gained confidence that he could survive with the income generated from agriculture and hence he started purchasing land in bit and pieces. To meet all the financial needs of the family members, land purchase for cultivation became essential. The income generated out of medicinal plant cultivation helped him financially to purchase land. As on March 2009 he purchased around 90 cents of land and more than 71.6 cents of land is utilised for cultivating the medicinal plant.

The income from the agriculture activity has reached a peak from 7200 to 2.36 lakhs per annum through sale of seeds. Apart from income from sale of seeds, Mr. V. Ramachandran is having stock of Rs. Seven lakhs worth of tuber. Though the income of the family has grown manifold, he never hired labourers to reduce the cost of input. Though the disaster was a sour event, it has created an opportunity to change and improve the livelihood income. He has the income generating fixed assets worth of Rs. 2 lakhs (71.6 cents). He owns three goats, 20 coconut trees to supplement income to his family. The initial support seeded by the SHG has enabled the poor family to shift from sea water based livelihood to fresh water based livelihood activity.