Agricultural History
Based on the 1920 records, Udma was a panchayat where paddy cultivation held major importance. The majority of the agricultural land was under the control of three or four large landlords and a few Devaswoms. All the farmers were tenants of these landlords. The landlord-tenant system was the local custom at the time. The tenants owned no land of their own. That is, systems such as Pattakudiyama (leasehold tenancy), Vaaram (sharecropping), and Nuri were in practice. If the rent (paattam) was not paid for a year, it was customary for the landlord to harvest the entire crop planted by the farmer. This practice was known as 'Odikuthal'.
Agriculture was more than just a livelihood; it was a way of life and culture. The farming practices of that era relied on native seed varieties—such as Kayamma (Unda Kayamma), Vellathovvan, Thonnooran, Choman, Thavalakkannan, and Keerippala—along with organic fertilizers and traditional agricultural implements. After the paddy harvest, crops like little millet (chama), maize, sesame, horse gram, cowpea, sweet potato, and various kinds of vegetables were cultivated in the fields. For irrigation, traditional methods like water wheels (eatham), wooden troughs (paathi), and earthen check dams (manchira) were utilized. Pest control methods included blowing wood ash (venneeru paattal) to destroy insects and placing thorny churi bushes in vegetable fields to ward off bandicoots. The tractor or mechanical plow was used for the first time in the panchayat during the early 1960s.
