Our chief minister has been rightly slammed by the Fatorda MLA, Vijay Sardessai for proposing Gujarat as a model of development for Goa. Instead of Goa being a model of development for other states, our leaders, ignorant of Goa’s worth, history and rich natural beauty, are trying to adopt other states as our models. True economic development will include both agriculture and industry. Given the small size of our state, Goa cannot afford heavy and polluting industries. Studies have already been made that IT industries, pharmaceutical and educational hubs are more suited to our state. In this scenario, Gujarat may not be a model for Goa where all types of industries are projected and Goa cannot follow that model.
Goa can be a model state in agriculture in all its cognate and derivative expressions. Agriculture is a permanent industry (although it has not been defined so far as such) which can provide jobs throughout the year if the government makes water resources available for it. Goa was a model in agriculture for centuries even before the arrival of the colonisers due to our unique agricultural system of Ganvkaris of comunidades. Goa’s name and fame as a land of advanced agriculture had reached so far and wide that the Rajas and Maharajas of the neighbouring states were inviting Goan agriculturist to their respective states like Elladi Kingdom, Mangalore, Mysore in Karnataka, Cochin, Trivandrum and other places in Kerala. And from Kerala they were taken to the remotest lands of Brazil for the same purpose.
But sadly today our agriculture in Goa is in shambles due to the Agricultural Tenancy Act and its 6th amendment which took away the land from the hands of the owners and gave it to the tenants. The resources of our land have been wasted due to the breaching of the bunds and unplanned construction activities on the hills from where sewage water flows into the rich paddy fields impeding our farmers to work in the polluted paddy fields.
Successive governments in Goa have only paid lip service to agriculture and chocked it to death.
Goa needs to keep its agriculture, greenery, it’s water resources and combine it with agreeable industries and thus developed, Goa can be a model state to the other states. In order to achieve this some of the initiatives that could be taken are: Give the land back to the rightful owners, that is, the comunidades who had developed and maintained agriculture in Goa for centuries. Since the government was responsible for destroying it, subsidise the agriculture till it is back on track; in order to foster love for agriculture in children let every school have at least a paddy field of 1000 square meters where agriculture can be thought and marks given to the students as given in sports; give incentives to agriculturists; Have an agriculture college in the State; prevent the sale of agricultural land to non-Goans.
