27 Nov 2022  |   05:41am IST

THE FARMING OF HOPE: A revival movement to transform Goan farms from fallow to fertile

The paddy fields in Ponda are dying a slow death due to growth of thick mangroves and constant encroachment. The problem has become more acute as the previous generation of farmers are aging and they are not getting the helping hand from their young generation, who have preferred white collared jobs over farming. SANTOSH NAIK reports on how fear of losing their lands forever has led the farmers of Wadi-Talavali village in Ponda to unite and revive their community paddy fields.
THE FARMING OF HOPE: A revival movement to transform Goan farms from fallow to fertile

The total area under paddy cultivation in Ponda taluka has reduced to half as the remaining area is fallow and completely covered with bushes and trees or converted into non agriculture purpose.

This situation has been prevailing since the past two decades with local youths preferring government or private jobs. On the other hand, the elderly farmers are forced to keep their fields fallow with no participation from their children, coupled with high cost of labour.

Today, with the advent of mechanised farming, 75 percent of work cost has been reduced and youths need to be encouraged to take up farming, which they can do on a part-time basis, while continuing with their jobs.

With fear of losing their lands forever looming large over the farmers of Wadi-Talavali village, it is now or never for them. With the support of an NGO, 20 years after keeping their land fallow, the aged farmers in this village panchayat have united and are planning to revive their community paddy field, which was dying a slow death due to constant encroachment and growth of mangroves in their field over the years due to failure in maintenance work.

About 50 farmers were cultivating around 80,000 square metres of fields till they gave up farming due to high cost and various other reasons. As youths are now well settled, farmers feel this is the right time to bring the land back under cultivation. The aim is to save land from the onslaught of mangroves and also bring back glory to agriculture.

If Wadi-Talavali farmers succeed in their paddy revival plan in the coming days, it would give a big boost to neighbouring villages of Ponda Taluka where most of paddy land is facing same problem, – either they are kept fallow or trees bushes have grown up making it difficult to identify whether it was once agricultural land.

Villagers at Wadi-Talavali said that it is a tradition in Goan culture where a father tries to fulfil his son`s dream and son always realise his father`s dreams and so the old generation farmers are hoping that they will revive their bountiful paddy crop.

The farmers are desperate that their young generation who is well settled now in jobs should turn to agriculture. They are upset that the traditional fields they once gave up due to high labour cost are now slowly turning into a mangrove jungle due to constant encroachment in absence of cultivation.

They want to save their fertile land from slowly turning into a mangrove jungle, which otherwise would be difficult for them to bring back for paddy due to prevailing strict environment rules. They are now unitedly making efforts to achieve their goal. With favourable advancement in machinery for agriculture they want their children to infuse a new lease of life to their traditional agriculture activities. 

In Goa, many farm lands are converted for commercial purposes or for expansion of roads or sold or land grabbed which they feel should not be the case with land on which they earned livelihood and grew up. 

Besides facing reluctance from the younger generation to venture into agriculture, farmers are also bothered by breaching of bhandaras at many places and saline water entering into their fields. Besides farming being a labour intensive, there is a short supply of labourers and cattle menace is an issue too.

Besides this, there are many reasons cited by farmers for non-cultivation.  However, the main reason is lack of encouragement and motivation for farming, due to which some agricultural lands are recklessly filled with mud and sold to builders.

The only thing that is needed is encouragement for farmers to bring those lands under cultivation before it is encroached and sold for construction activity.

Former College principal turned farmer Dr Pandurang Sawant Talaulikar told Herald that NGO Green Army Chief Abay Kesarkar is inspiring farmers to drive them back to paddy cultivation.

“We are now determined to cultivate paddy by encouraging our youths to take up agriculture by next year after creating infrastructure. Farming can be an alternative source of income to our next generation,” said Sawant Talaulikar, who holds a Ph D in Mining Ore Research.

With mechanisation the hard work is reduced. The youths need to work on the weekends and public holidays to look after the crops. Jobs have become a craze for youths but luckily the youths too show positive approach, he says adding that the government authorities have assured to provide required support to pursue farming.

According to Abay Kesarkar, Convenor of Green Army, “Due to Covid-19 pandemic, we could not achieve much progress. Our village is located on the banks of a river, where we also cultivate rabi crops. But since land remained fallow due high labour cost and several other reasons, fields have now been seized by mangroves.”

According to Kesarkar, he alerted farmers about the impending danger to their fields if they keep it fallow. He feared that the remaining portion of fields would turn into mangrove jungle. So far 25 per cent of the field is encroached by mangroves and we are trying to revive the 75 per cent of paddy land by reviving agriculture. The Water Resources Department (WRD) had recently laid foundation stone for construction of sluice gates to protect fields affected by inundation of saline water.

Kesarkar, a former Deputy Director of MPT is today an inspiration and motivator for farmers. He cautions that besides mangroves growth the farmers are concerned with cattle menace. We have to combat it. But with mechanised community farming almost one or two families are enough to bring the paddy field under cultivation.

Besides paddy, there can be other value added crops including locally grown vegetables which can fetch good revenue. On a trial basis we are cultivating black rice, which commands a good price. We can even hope to export this value-added crop to countries like the UK within 12 hours of harvesting, he says.

Borim Green Army inspired some farmers and they brought around 12,000 square metres of land under cultivation,” Kesarkar said. 

Senior farmer and a former union leader Bhagwant Naik recalled, “Our forefathers used to carry their young ones to the field. But we failed to take our children to the fields, which is the reason why youths are now shying away from farming. But now our main goal is to inspire youths to carry out traditional farming,” Naik said.

According to Pradnya Gaude, Zonal Agriculture Officer ( ZAO) at Ponda, Kisan Card is necessary for availing subsidies of various government schemes.

WRD engineer Shailesh Naik said that in order to protect the farm land at Wadi-Talavali, the department had issued a tender to construct sluice gates. This will protect rice crops. We will also desilt nullahs which will encourage fishing activities.

Power Minister Sudin Dhavalikar said, “Our forefathers with their hard work created this fertile fields, which needs to be preserved for future generations. Youths should come forward to take up paddy cultivation.”

Dhavalikar said with the support of his family trust, about 1.30 lakh square metre of land has been brought under cultivation at Kundaim.

“Similarly 80,000 square metres at Marcaim and 40,000 square metres at Talavali Bandora will be brought under cultivation,” he said.

Cooperation Minister Subhash Shirodkar said that he has set a target to bring 1000 farmers back to agriculture. He said that the Cooperation, Agriculture and WRD departments should work in tandem to boost the economy.

Agriculture Minister Ravi Naik said he has directed Zonal Agricultural Officers to bring maximum land under cultivation. He urged youth to avail optimum benefits of government schemes and subsidies.


IDhar UDHAR

Idhar Udhar