Impact assessment of AGRICULTURE technological interventions in sunami affected South Andaman - A case study

The giant tsunami of December 2004 not only damaged the physical infrastructure but devastated the agriculture and allied sectors along with the associated livelihood opportunities in the Andaman Islands. Tsunami resulted in large area of farmland submerged and subsequent drying up of water bodies in affected ecologies. It caused moisture stress for the standing crops, livestock and fisheries and affected the livelihood of the people to a large extent. An investigation was carried out to assess the technological impact being implemented by government agencies and NGOs for upgrading/maintaing the well being of farming community of Andaman. About 66% saline land at present could be reclaimed and brought under cultivation. The source of income has drastically shifted from farm to non-farm activities as a result of complete whitewash of the farm land due to tsunami. Across farm sources, the contribution from agriculture fell sharply from 31.49% to 7.34%. This paper represents an assessment for how livelihoods are being recovered by intervention with agricultural technologies such as salinization of soil, and to water resources and rice fields. The interventions have successfully demonstrated the recovered farmers’ agriculture livelihood using newly developed technologies such as the raised crop beds with a coconut husk system or the broad bed and furrows (BBF) system. Some farmers’ livelihoods were seen to have been successfully restored through the synergy of human activities and natural hydrological schemes.