Save Goa’s fields
The Goa government had allocated Rs 154.30 crore for agriculture for the year 2012-13, of which the agriculture department utilized only about one third by February 2013. With this kind of commitment from the department, it is anyone’s guess whether the government’s projected six per cent growth in agriculture sector in next five years can be accomplished.
Besides new schemes such as ‘drive in road side’ markets, to secure a better price for farmers and provide a platform for their produce; kisan mitra yojana to provide a government companion to farmers to avail of schemes, the government also proposes to implement contract farming scheme.
The Chief Minister, while supporting the contract farming concept had stated that henceforth conversion of agricultural land will not be permitted except for public projects and that agriculture land will be taken back if left fallow for three consecutive years.
However, the massive physical takeover of fields over the last few decades by illegal occupants such as nurseries promoters, grill makers, brick makers, petrol pump owners have destroyed large portions of fields especially along highways, as the pressure on the land grows and fields become the easiest victims. Destruction of fields however has traditionally been going on along the coast with miscreants destroying bunds and allowing saline water into fields to catch fish. The constant ingress of saline water has permanently destroyed large tracks of fields along the Ribandar causeway, in St. Cruz, Cortalim and many coastal areas. Nature too has taken its toll by natural seepage of saline water into fields in coastal areas such as Talpona in Canacona.
Today, however, garbage and sewage are the new killers, with heaps of garbage dumped into fields where at some point of time the civic authorities had placed roadside dustbins. Sewage from colonies bordering fields flows in fields, destroying them. Even people who had uncultivated farms as is the case in Seraulim, who are eager to start cultivating crops due to increased awareness, are unable to do so due to shards of glass, plastic and ash of the run off of garbage burnt nearby.
However, government and local authorities which are the regulatory authorities are the biggest destroyers of fields as most of the by-passes ~ Miramar – Dona Paula, Siridao-Agassaim, Guirim-Karaswda bypasses etc and government projects such as bus stands in Shiroda, Canacona, Marcel and other bus stands, the KTC terminus in Panjim, EDC Complex, Goa Collectorate, District Hospital, almost every new project has come up by destroying fields.
Of all the villages, Taleigao takes the cake for massacre of fields, where broad roads unseen in Goa have been part of a nefarious design to destroy fields and promote concrete jungles, destroying the very ethos of the famous village to which Panjim played second fiddle in the past. The field where the cutting of the corn by the priest and gaoncars marked the traditional harvest feast has been filled with construction waste. Gaoncars of Taleigao were given the privilege to cut the first corn by the Portuguese as a reward for giving them food while they were docked at the Aguada sandbar before they re-launched the naval attack and ousted Adilshah.
These projects in turn create pressure for commercial activities, which are allowed to operate illegally by panchayats and municipal councils. What is most shocking is the silence of the state government and failure to put in place and implement severe punitive laws for illegal filling of fields and illegal operation of businesses. Add to this the utterance of the agriculture department that there is nothing it can do and that farmers have to be at the mercy of the local bodies ~ municipalities and panchayats ~ to prevent these illegalities and you have a perfect recipe for disaster. The government needs to have a well orchestrated agricultural policy and a definite time bound strategy to resurrect Goa’s fields, not only to save the state from disaster but because the sine qua non of every progressive state is food self sufficiency.
