This is the time of the year when the whole crew of Sargaalaya Arts and Crafts Village at Iringal in Kozhikode usually immerses iteself in preparation of the Sargaalaya International Art and Craft Festival (SIACF) that takes place in December-January. Instead, this year they are all toiling in the soil to keep the boat afloat.
The lockdown has taken its toll on the tourism industry in God’s Own Country. For a State that has tourism as one of its major sources of revenue, the estimated loss of ₹25,000 crore during this period is too big a crash. And for Sargaalaya, keeping their staff fed until the tough phase passes was too much of a challenge, which they managed to meet to a great extent through agriculture, as part of an employee support scheme of Uralungal Labour Contractors’ Cooperative Society that manages the Village.
“We expected the lockdown to go on this long. But we could not set up another industry to feed our employees within this short time. Agriculture was the only option though not a very viable one,” said P.P. Bhaskaran, CEO of Sargaalaya.
Every direct employee of Sargaalaya, including the top management, have turned up at the Village over these months to engage in farming. Under the Subhiksha Keralam project of the State government, around 28 plots beside the premises of the Craft Village (around 10 acres in total) have been used for vegetable farming. The initiative benefited around 45 employees while the Village made a turnover of ₹3 lakh in three months. The vegetables, produced largely in organic manner, were mainly sold at the local market, besides the nearby towns of Vadakara, Payyoli, and Azhiyur.
“It is not a profitable business, but we were able to support our staff. That is all that matters,” Mr. Bhaskaran said, adding that the initiative was instrumental in kindling an interest in agriculture among the local people. As for the artisans who have set up their permanent stalls there, the Village had provided some relief during Vishu and Onam, and some of them made an earning by selling the vegetables produced at the Village.
Tourism revival is key
“However, this cannot go on for long. The tourism sector needs to reopen, and very soon. Or else we will lose out to our competitors,” he said.
Kerala is in a direct competition with Sri Lanka in the tourism sector. "If we do not open for the tourists now, we may lose a lot of them to Sri Lanka. After all it is word of mouth that is the biggest advertisement in this sector", Mr.Bhaskaran added.
Even now, a lot of domestic tourists knock on the doors of Sargaalaya every week, only to be politely sent back. "People are fed up of being cooped up at their homes. If there was no statutory obligation, we could open our doors, but of course following the COVID protocol", he said, not hiding the expectation that the tourism sector in the state will be reopened at least by November.