Vithappadu - Sowing Field

This documentary, entitled ‘vithappadu’ (Sowing Field) provides an insight to the issues of food sovereignty, sustainable management of traditional rice farming system and the adaptive strategy of reorganization of the social structure of traditional agricultural system. It is a humble effort to document a small ethnic group in a remote region that successfully developed a system of self-governance to manage their resources with less impact on the ecosystem and biodiversity. It is relevant in the broader realm of a world driven by the capitalistic economy, which controls and utilize whatever resources left in a totalitarian manner.

The documentary shows us the way forward to tackle the issues of depressive changes in the traditional farming patterns and the allied cultural, social and economic structures. Effort is made to bring in the allied elements of climate change and agrarian crisis in a different perspective. This has been done by focusing a member of ‘Kurichya’ tribe and his innovative and holistic methodology towards this goal.