PHOTO: Fr George explaining farming methods to students |
Photo: William Rodrigues
Goa village digs in, grows paddy to stop builders
Derek Almeida, Panaji
derekalme...@rediffmail.com
When residents of the island village of St Estevam found that
they were going to lose their land to a jetty for loading
coal, and almost certainly also to builders, they decided to
stop protesting and take decisive action.
Led by the young on the island, they decided that the best
strategy would be to put the land to use by cultivating paddy
which would provide financial returns and also make
acquisition difficult.
PHOTO: Young people lend a helping hand in the nursery |
Photo: William Rodrigues
In just one season after putting their strategy into
operation, they succeeded in bringing 450,000 sqm under
cultivation and harvested 65,000 kg of paddy, thereby
stopping acquisition of their land.
Landowners on St Estevam had long given up farming.
The gram sabha, panchayat and communidade (an
institution for community ownership of land, unique
to Goa) had been discussing a revival of paddy
cultivation, but there were many hurdles to contend
with. Labour was hard to find and returns not high
enough to justify investment.
Three factors came together to speed up community action --
the coal jetty, builders who had their eye on this green
island just 15 km from Panaji and filling up of khazan lands
(low-lying areas reclaimed centuries ago through construction
of sluice gates and bunds).
The Ilhas Verde Farmers' Club was set up with an 18-member
executive committee. Ilhas Verde, which means green island,
is the name given to this island by the Portuguese.
The committee was aware of the practical problems associated
with cultivation. "We knew that members of the village
couldn't till the land," says Ashwin Varela, 21, a young
member of the core committee which did most of the legwork.
"But we had heard of the work undertaken by Fr George Quadros
of Don Bosco at Loutolim in South Goa in mechanised farming
and we decided to use him as a service provider."
It proved to be a brilliant decision because Fr George had
the necessary experience and machines to undertake seed
germination, transplantation and harvesting.
"In a way, we were outsourcing the back-breaking work,"
admits Ansyl Gonsalves, 22, another young member of the core
committee.
While the effort was guided by Nestor Rangel, an electronics
engineer-turned-horticulturist, and Shailendra Alfonso, a
retired merchant navy employee, the role of the parish
priest, Fr Eusico Pereira, in galvanising the people was
crucial to its success.
As the residents got their act together, awareness programmes
were also held by the Agriculture Technical Management Agency
(ATMA), affiliated to the agriculture department of the state
government.
Rangel took up the task of coordinating with ATMA, the zonal
agriculture officer, Old Goa, and other government agencies.
But before getting the tractors to plough the land,
they first had to identify the landowners and get
their permission. Along with another young member,
Swizel Gonsalves, the three-member team set about
the task. To their good luck, a former parish
priest had obtained a survey of the village which
contained plot numbers.
Since most land records are available online, they downloaded
Forms I and 14 of all plots, put them on an Excel sheet and
gave it to ward members of the parish council to identify the
landholders.
Accordingly, landowners or heirs were divided into four
categories -- those willing to cultivate on their own; those
willing to cultivate their land through the club by paying a
predetermined sum; those willing to give the club the right
to cultivate without paying or expecting returns, and those
unwilling to cultivate.
With the help of Fr George, the core group worked out the
cost of cultivation at Rs 3.5 per sq m which would include
seeds, ploughing, transplantation and harvesting. According
to Rangel, this is less than half the cost of using manual
labour.
The response from villagers was encouraging and accordingly
it was decided to undertake cultivation on 500,000 sq m in
three of the six khazan lands.
It was an ambitious target considering that this
was the first time in more than two decades that
land lying fallow was being revived for
cultivation. "After consultation with old-timers
from the village and the Indian Council of
Agricultural Research (ICAR) we decided on two
varieties of seeds -- Jyoti for the non-saline
areas and GRS-1 for the saline areas," said Rangel.
On May 9, the first tractor of the North Goa Mechanised
Farming Association led by Dinesh Harmalkar started ploughing
the land. "It wasn’t easy," recalled Ansyl, "and there were
incidents of tractors and transplanters sinkin
