Vallakam

Vallakam(Malayalam: വല്ലകം) is a village in Vaikom Taluk of Kottayam district in the southern Indian state of Kerala. Set in the backdrop of the state's famed backwaters, the economy of Vallakam used to be based on rice and coconut cultivation. This has undergone a sea-change in recent times due to the near-total discontinuance of rice cultivation as it became economically non-viable and the effect of new parasitic diseases like Mandari and falling coconut prices on coconut cultivation. As of now, Vallakam's economy is based on what is left of coconut cultivation, newly introduced cash crops like nutmeg (Myristica fragrans) and cacao (Theobroma cacao), remittances sent by people from the village working in other Indian states and abroad and trade.