The importance of greenery to Goa is like that of a mother to her child. Greenery adds a
certain peace and quiet to this western corner of the country and attempts to
sustain and enhance it need to be encouraged.
The Sao Mathias Sports Club in
collaboration with the Botanical Society of Goa is organising a training
workshop in grafting of fruit plants, the correct method of planting a graft
and its care on Sunday, 28 July, 2019 at the club premises in Malar- Divar. The
aim of the organisers is to promote Green Goa and ensure that Goa grows the
vegetables its needs within the state. More importantly, it will be done in an
organic manner.
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Priyanka Parab, a BSc(Agri) from Goa’s
only degree college in agriculture, Don Bosco College of Agriculture, Sulcorna,
is an intern with the Botanical Society of Goa. She has been doing
demonstrations in grafting, budding, organic vegetable gardening and composting
in schools and colleges across Goa during the last two months. She will be the
key Resource Person at the training workshop and will be assisted by her
mentor, Miguel Braganza, former Secretary of BSG. Miguel says, “We have been
doing this for a couple of years but this will be held for the first time in
Divar and we are focussed on the adults. People who live in apartments can also
grow plants and vegetables in pots of half round pipes. We are bringing in 80%
of our vegetables from outside and most of them are treated with insecticide
after harvest, which can be carcinogenic in the long run.”
The Botanical Society of Goa is an association of plant lovers
formed in 1980 and registered ten years later in May, 1990. It has been
organising the annual Home Garden & Organic Kitchen Garden Competitions
since 1992 and 2012 respectively and the Konkan Fruit Fest since 2003.
This event is facilitated by Marius Fernandes, a resident of
Divar and a promoter of local Goan traditions, which has earned him the name of
‘Festamkar’. He will also be facilitating the ‘Divadechi Pasoi’ (a walk round
the scenic village of Divar on the Malar side of the island) on August 17,
2019.
Echoing
Miguel, the Botanical Society of Goa promotes the love of plants in Goa and
since 2011 has turned organic in the promotion of fruit and vegetables as also
rice cultivation in Goa so that Goa can be self-sufficient in food and have
healthy organic produce not needing external and expensive certification. As he
puts it, age is not a factor; his three-year-old granddaughter Abigail, who
loves gardening, proves this.
