Pokkali Farming Best Practices
Adherance to centuries old time tested traditional Pokkali Farming practice delivers successful and profitable Pokkali cultivation from sowing to harvesting.
Following rubric distinguishes genuine farmers who adhere to best practices for a successful Pokkali Harvesing -- from those farm owners in the same farming environment who undertake namesake sham cultivation attempt only to collect free crop loss compensations and subsidies from government citing misleading reasons to continue unlicensed year round prawn farming.
1 Pokkali Farm Ownership
Do you own the farm you are cultivating? Acreage?
Are you leasing the farm for cultivation from the owner? Acreage?
Are you paying annual farm tax as the owner?
Are you paying annual farm tax on behalf of the owner?
Is your farm a standalone farm with well defined boundaries (cheras)?
Is your farm part of a larger set of farms (Padasekharam)?
Is the Sluice Gate within your farm ownership?
Is the Sluice Gate in another farm within the group of farms (Padasekharam)?
Are you leasing your farm and Prawn License to a Prawn Farmer (Kettukaran) from 14-November to 14-April?
Are you doing your own Prawn Farming from 14-November to 14-April?
2 Prior Year Cultivation Harvest - Required for Credibility
Did you undertake Pokkali cultivation from sowing to harvesting?
Did you harvest Pokkali rice in October/November?
Did you adhere to best practices deployed by other genuine farmers in your area who had a successful Pokkali Harvest?
Did you request available labor used by other successful farmers in your area?
Did you barter your harvested seeds for free labor from Coop Banks or Private Mills?
Did you sell your harvested traditional variery seeds at market rates of Rs 100+/Kg as was done by other successful farmers in your area?
If your cultivation was not successful, did you seek best prctices guidance from genuine farmers in your area who were able to successfully cultivate from Sowing to Harvesting without any issues?
3 Best Practice: High Quality Traditional Heirloom Seeds (April)
Did you use traditional heirloom (Chettivirippu) seeds for cultivation?
What quantity (Kg) of seeds were needed for cultivation?
Did you use Hybrid (Vyttila-x) seeds for cultivation?
Did you get free or subsidized seeds from Krishi Bhavan or Research Institutes?
Did you buy/barter seeds from other network of farmers?
Did you sell/barter seeds to other network of farmers?
Did you barter harvested seeds in exchange for free labor from Coop Banks or Private Mills?
4 Best Practice: Farm Preparation (April)
Did you prepare your farm for cultivation in the summer months of April-May (2025)? How many days? When did you start and end the activity?
Did you drain and dry the farm in the summer months of April-May (2025)? How many days? When did you start and end the activity?
Did you adhere to the District Collector’s PLDA directive to drain and dry farms starting 14-April-2025? When did you start and end this activity?
If you were not the owner of the Sluice Gate, were you able to get the Sluice Gate Owner to drain and dry the farm as per Distruct PLDA directive?
5 Best Practice: Ploughing and Mounds Preparation (May)
Did you plough and till the farms in the summer months of Apri-/May (2025) after draining and drying? When did you start and end?
Did you create clay mounds of atleast 1-2feet n height for sowing germinated seeds and water channels for water draining?
6 Best Practice: Boundary Wild Foliage Clearing (May)
Did you clear wild foliage growth, bird nests and rodent tunnels along farm boundaries (cheras) of farm in the summer months of April-May (2025)? When did you start and end this task?
7 Best Practice: Boundary Strengthening (May)
Did you reinforce height and strength of farm boundaries (cheras) during summer months of April-May (2025)? When did you start and end this task?
Did you plug all leaking holes (Kallans) in farm boundaries (cheras) during summer months of April-May (2025)? When did you start and end this task?
8 Best Practice: Sluice Gate Strengthening (May)
Did you, as the owner of the Sluice Gate, reinforce height, plug leaking holes and strengthen the Sluice Gates during the summer months of May? When did you start and end this task?
9 Best Practice: Bird and Pest Deterrance (May)
Did you setup bird deterrent strings with ribbons, scarecrows, bottles with rattling stones or other traditional forms of bird deterrents in your farm?
Did you deploy nettings as bird deterrents in your farm?
Did you plug visible farm rat tunnels along boundaries/cheras?
10 Best Practice: Soil Salt Draining (June)
Did you allow first weks of monsoon to drain soil salts from farm mounds with appropriate sluice gate control?
Did you drain farms to ensure mounds were maintained and protected from water logging with appropriate sluice gate control?
11 Best Practice: Seed Germination (June)
Did you adhere to traditional and required 5-day dual timed water soak seed germination process?
If not, how were the seeds germinated?
Were the seed germination process timed to align with the date of sowing?
12 Best Practice: Seed Sowing (June)
When (date) in June did you sow the seeds?
Did you monitor farm in the critical first week of sowing to protect seeds from moss/algae cover, birds, rodents, water logging and wash outs (if any)?
Did you monitor farm for 28 days after sowing until sapling growth to atleast 2-feet in height?
Did you ask for or collect free crop loss compensation from government by claiming loss of sowed seed?
13 Best Practice: Sapling Spreading (July)
When (date) did you spread the 2-feet high saplings with root clay clump from mounds evenly across the farm?
Did you sk for or collect free government compensation after spreading of saplings in July?
14 Best Practice: Farm Monitoring (August-September)
How and how often did you monitor the farm in the months of August, September, October?
Did you ensure periodic water inflow/outflow from the farm using Sluice Gates during the months of August, September, October ?
Did you monitor farm water level with Sluice Gates to prevent growing stalks from getting fully submerged during the months of August, September and October?
Did you monitor farm during the flowering stage for insect (Chaazhi etc) pests (if any) in late September or early October?
15 Best Practice: Harvesting (October-November)
Did you monitor farm during the golden rice grain stage of the crop for bird pests (if any) in late October?
When (date) did you harvest the crop?
Where (location) did you accumulate harvested stalk bunches for drying and threshing?
Did you deploy traditional 3-5days of natural sun drying, stalk rolling, and mist cooling sequences in November to isolate high quality germinatable seeds for next years cultivation?
16 Best Practice: Threshing and Sifting (October-November)
When (date) did you do the threshing of grains for sun drying?
Did you use a mechanical threshing machine?
Did you use traditional manual threshing?
17 Best Practice: Storage (November)
Where and how did you store germinatable seeds for next year's sowing?
Where and how did you store the seeds for rice milling?
Did you store seeds In a dark/cool/dry room in your house (traditional wood based Ara room)?
Were the seeds stored in breathable narutal fiber gunny bags?
18 Selling
What was your yield (Kgs)?
Did you sell seeds, rice or both at available premium market rates for high quality traditional heirloom (not hybrid) Pokkali rice (Rs200/Kg) and Seeds (Rs 120/Kg).
Are you selling seeds and/or rice to farmers, Krishi Bhavans, Coop Banks, Private Mills or Online?
Following rubric distinguishes genuine farmers who adhere to best practices for a successful Pokkali Harvesing -- from those farm owners in the same farming environment who undertake namesake sham cultivation attempt only to collect free crop loss compensations and subsidies from government citing misleading reasons to continue unlicensed year round prawn farming.