The monsoon has brought about the annual halt to mining, tourism and fishing activities in the State. These three are the main industries in Goa and every May 31 they fold up for the season. While mining and tourism take a four-month break, fishing by trawlers is banned for two months. The coast will almost empty out of people, as those who come to Goa for seasonal employment in the tourism industry and on fishing boats, return to their home State. Similarly, with the hinterland, as the mining machinery shuts down, labourers employed on mining leases will return to their homes. Though the Tourism Department is looking forward to Raindrop Tourism, and traditional fishing and use of canoes is permitted during the period, the activity levels in all three industries will not be the same.
The closure of these three industries puts the focus on agriculture in the State, an activity that has been on the decline over the decades and where the government recently promised to double the income of Goan farmers in the next five years, in keeping with the policy of the Union Government. Despite this promise, agriculture is an activity that is finding fewer takers in Goa, with large areas of land that were once cultivated being left fallow across the State. Getting farmers back into the field would be the first and most difficult of tasks for the Agriculture Department.
According to statistics published in the Economic Survey 2014-15, land under paddy, pulses, groundnut, sugarcane cultivation in Goa has been dropping. The area under cashew and coconut plantation has remained rather constant, and the only increase of land under cultivation, is in vegetable cultivation, which is marginal. If at all agriculture is to pick up in Goa, then this has to change, and more land has to be brought under cultivation. The Agriculture Department has a plan for this and a new policy to transform fallow lands into well-aerated and nitrogen-rich soils is awaited. The policy will be launched after the trials being conducted in the Agriculture Minister’s constituency are assessed.
On a trial basis, Agriculture Department has urged farmers to plough their fallow lands, even if they do not plan to cultivate the fields, so as to improve the quality of the land. The initial ploughing was proposed before or during the summer so as to expose the turned up soil to the heat, and the ploughed field harrowed before the monsoons so that the land becomes leveled. During the monsoon the Department recommended that seeds of nitrogen fixing plants be scattered on the soil, which would grow with the rain water. After three or four months the land with the trees would be ploughed again so that the plants are crushed in the soil making it well aerated and releasing nitrogen in the soil making the land rich and fertile for use. The success of this trial depends on the farmer, who needs to be motivated by Agriculture Department to undertake this experiment.
The Agriculture Minister has said they are ready to accept all suggestions to move ahead in the sector and that Brand Goa will soon be inculcated in Goan agriculture. What the department has to focus on is not merely rhetoric, but converting agriculture and farming into a profit-oriented activity. A major reason for youth staying away from the fields is that the time, effort and finance invested into farming does not always compensate by the sale of the product. It is only when that changes, when the end product brings in a profit on the investment, that agriculture will begin to look up in the State.
