In the high ranges of Wayanad, where mist once arrived with dependable rhythm and the monsoon rarely missed its cue, farming has entered an uneasy new phase. Rains now come late or all at once. Dry spells last longer. Crops that once followed predictable cycles behave differently. It is in this shifting landscape that a modest but significant intervention emerged in Mananthavady this week with the release of the eighth edition of Wayanad’s Climate Resilient Agriculture Calendar for 2026-27.
The event was inaugurated by Mananthavady Block Panchayat President Meenakshi Raman, while the calendar was formally released by Thirunelly Grama Panchayat President Anju Balan. Their presence carried significance beyond ceremony. Both are women from tribal communities now occupying positions of local authority in a region where indigenous knowledge has long shaped agriculture but rarely found recognition within formal governance.
What began in 2019 as a farmer-led initiative of the Thirunelly Agri Producer Company Ltd (TAPCo) has evolved into a collective exercise involving scientists, civil society groups, and grassroots knowledge practitioners. The Hume Centre for Ecology and Wildlife Biology contributes climate analysis and ecological insights. The Keystone Foundation brings experience from years of engagement with tribal communities. Nattarivu Padana Kendram works to document and validate traditional knowledge systems in agriculture, food, and health.
The result is not merely a technical manual, but a living document shaped by science, memory, observation, and generations of farming experience.
Structured from April to March, the calendar maps farming practices for Wayanad’s major crops including paddy, tubers, vegetables, coffee, and pepper. But it goes beyond listing cultivation activities. It aligns farm operations with lunar cycles while also providing alerts on possible extreme weather events each month. A farmer reading the calendar in June or October is not just looking at sowing schedules but also the likelihood of intense rainfall, dry spells, or temperature stress.
Equally important is the space it creates for farmers to record their own observations. Rainfall patterns, pest attacks, soil behaviour, and changes in crop response all find a place in its pages. Over time, these notes accumulate into a body of localised climate data that formal systems often fail to capture. In many ways, the calendar functions as a grassroots action research tool.
The release event was followed by a session led by Renjini, who heads the climate programme at the Hume Centre.
For many associated with the initiative, the calendar represents not just an agricultural tool but also a way of reclaiming dignity and continuity in farming. Saritha O T, who returned to Mananthavady after working as a lecturer in Hyderabad to take up vegetable cultivation, said farming transformed her understanding of climate and food.
“When I was teaching in Hyderabad, farming was something I thought about emotionally, as a memory from home. But when I returned and began cultivating vegetables myself, I realised how deeply uncertainty shapes every decision a farmer makes,” she said. “The rains no longer follow familiar patterns. Sometimes crops fail because of excess rain, sometimes because there is no rain at all. In such a situation, a calendar like this becomes more than a guide. It becomes a collective memory of how farmers are learning to adapt together.”
Saritha said one of the strengths of the initiative was that it did not treat farmers merely as beneficiaries of expert advice. “The calendar respects local knowledge. It asks farmers to document what they observe, what succeeds and what fails. That process itself creates confidence among people who often feel abandoned by larger systems,” she added.
Her presentation connected global climate phenomena with local realities. Concepts such as El Niño and La Niña were explained through their direct impact on Wayanad’s fields and seasons. The current year, expected to be influenced by El Niño, is likely to bring altered rainfall patterns and increased temperature stress. For farmers already grappling with irregular monsoons, this could mean delayed sowing, reduced yields, and higher vulnerability for crops such as coffee and pepper.
The discussion also highlighted a larger transformation underway. Climate change is no longer a series of isolated events. It is reshaping the structure of seasons themselves. Rainfall is becoming more intense but less evenly distributed. Dry periods are extending. Pest cycles are shifting with temperature changes. Traditional indicators farmers once relied on are becoming less reliable because the environment they were attuned to is itself changing.
For Wayanad’s farmers, the impact is already visible. Paddy cultivation has steadily declined due to labour shortages, wildlife incursions, erratic rainfall, and poor returns. Coffee and pepper plantations, the backbone of the district’s cash economy, are increasingly vulnerable to temperature fluctuations and disease outbreaks. Tubers and vegetables face challenges from climate variability and soil degradation.
This wider crisis shaped the emergence of TAPCo as a farmer-led intervention.
O V Johnson, chairman of TAPCo and a conservator of traditional paddy seeds, said farming communities now face multiple layers of crisis simultaneously.
“The problem is not only climate change. Farmers are also struggling with collapsing prices, rising costs, labour shortages and loss of indigenous seeds that were once adapted to local conditions,” he said.
Johnson believes local seed diversity itself is an important form of climate resilience. “Many traditional varieties can tolerate irregular rain or withstand local ecological stresses better than commercial hybrids. Conserving them is not nostalgia. It is part of preparing for an uncertain future,” he said.
According to Johnson, the calendar emerged from repeated discussions among farmers who felt increasingly disoriented by changing seasons.
“Earlier, farmers could roughly predict rainfall and cultivation cycles from experience. Today that confidence has weakened. The calendar was an attempt to rebuild a system of shared learning by combining scientific inputs with local observations,” he said.
One of TAPCo’s key interventions has been reducing uncertainty around markets and weather. The organisation consults farmers before sowing and announces procurement prices in advance so that cultivators have some assurance about returns. It procures produce directly from farm gates and makes payments immediately, reducing dependence on middlemen and easing the financial stress faced by small farmers.
Rajesh Krishnan, who conceptualised and coordinated the TAPCo initiative, said the effort emerged from conversations with farmers who repeatedly described agriculture as a gamble shaped by forces beyond their control.
“Across the world, farmers face two major uncertainties. One is the uncertainty of weather and the other is the uncertainty of markets. We wanted to see how a local institution could reduce at least some part of that insecurity,” he said.
Rajesh explained that the climate calendar became a natural extension of this philosophy. “If markets are uncertain and climate is unstable, then knowledge itself becomes a form of security for farmers. The calendar tries to create that by helping farmers prepare rather than simply react,” he added.
By offering month-wise anticipatory guidance, the calendar allows farmers to adjust practices in advance. Sowing can be delayed or advanced based on expected rainfall. Crop choices can be diversified to spread risk. Preparations for extreme weather can be made ahead of time. While it cannot eliminate uncertainty, it helps farmers respond to it with greater awareness.
The involvement of local governance adds another layer to this evolving framework. Thirunelly Panchayat has allocated funds this year to establish a community-level weather monitoring network. Local teams will collect and interpret weather data that can inform a panchayat-level forecasting mechanism. Mananthavady Block Panchayat is expected to expand the model across its six panchayats in the coming year.
If realised, this could create a network of hyper-local climate intelligence that strengthens farm-level decision making.
The leadership of Meenakshi Raman and Anju Balan is significant in itself. In many parts of India, climate adaptation remains a top-down process disconnected from local realities. In Wayanad, women from tribal communities are beginning to shape that process from within.
At present, the calendar is available in Malayalam. An English version is expected to be uploaded on TAPCo’s website this week, making the model accessible to researchers, policymakers, and practitioners elsewhere.