A farmer from Kothampatti village
Madurai, India

About this video

Kalyaniammal from Kothampatti village in Usilampatti Taluk, Madurai District, in India. She is a farmer. She is talking of how water was plentiful, and accessible when she was young, and how surprised they all were when water came out of earth using motors and pumpsets, but that the new technology has lowered the water table. Now her community consumes more of rice, when before they consumed rice only on festive occassions and less of coarse grains. She describes different kinds of grains they used to consume earlier. These grains are still cultivated, but only by marginal communities as there is no market or state incentive for the cultivation of these grains. These grains are particularly suitable for climate challenged environments.