It is a golden harvest time for a handful of enterprising people of Murukallingal, near Chaliyam, a coastal village in Kadalundi grama panchayat in Kozhikode district’s southwestern border. The ongoing mussel harvesting taking place there appears to be doing justice to the very name of the locality. Murukallingal means the land of stones with oysters.
People from far and near reach Murukallingal these days in the morning to buy medium-size mussels harvested from the river. One of the tributaries of the Chaliyar flows through Murukallingal and empties into the Arabian Sea at Beypore, hardly a kilometre away in the west.
“This river is ideal for mussel farming, especially in the Murukallingal area, a place known for oysters from long. The mussels cultivated here are as good as those collected from the sea at Chaliyam,” says M.C. Kutty Koya, a resident of Murukallingal. He says he has bought at least 60 kg of mussel in the last one month.
Good season
The enterprising men of Murukallingal have been engaged in mussel farming in small groups for the past several months. Unlike the past years, this season has been the best for them. “Everything has been perfect this season. We harvest at least 500 kg of mussel every day,” says Baburaj K., one of the group farmers.
The proximity to the sea at Chaliyam, the salinity of water and the peculiarity of the riverbed with stones, caves and mud have apparently blessed Murukallingal with exceptional fertility for mussel farming. “Though we have been engaged in mussel farming for nearly two decades, the farming technique appears to have perfected only now. The riverbed is so conducive to mussel cultivation here that we just have to throw the seeds into the river and harvest it after four months,” says Rajan N., one of the leading farmers.
Like Mr. Rajan’s group, several others too start placing the seeds in different areas of the river from November when the salinity of the water hardens. “The monsoon is unfit for mussel farming as the undercurrent will be more and the water will be less saline. So we begin in November and the mussels become ready to harvest by March-April,” says Mr. Rajan.
They buy mussel seeds from agents and throw in the river. Within days, those seeds join together and form into large bunches and start growing. The farmers harvest it when the tide is at its lowest.
“Although this place is ideal for mussel farming, we have very large stony pits in the middle of the river. So we take extreme care we go there,” says Mr. Baburaj.
They have been selling mussels for Rs160 a kg. At the time of Vishu, mussels fetched them up to Rs200.
“It is of good quality. Fleshy and tasty,” says Mr. Kutty Koya.
