MARCOS GONSALVES
marcos@herald-goa.com
CURTORIM: The mechanised cultivation that stuck to only 50,000 square metres for the longest time, has presently etched 40 farmers of Maina-Curtorim to stretch its service to around 4 lakh square meters of agricultural land.
Farmers feel that the blessings of ‘Khandi Khuris’ and the man with a mission Fr. George Quadros has given new hopes in preserving the tradition of farming. Don Bosco Society’s, Fr George and his team will be doing mechanized cultivation of more than 4 lakh square metres of fields on July 8 at Maina. By which the cost of the labours and other charges will be reduced by 75 to 80 per cent.
Speaking to Herald one of the farmers from Maina, John Rebello said that in earlier days all the farmers were engaged in cultivating the fields manually and it used to take a lot of time, besides manpower and money.
“However, with the blessing of ‘Khandi Khuris’, we shifted to mechanized cultivation. Fr. George has shown the way out at the time maximum number of the farmers faced the hardships in order to take forward the tradition of farming”, he said.
He further revealed that nearly 4 lakh square metres of fields, which belong to 40 farmers are now shifted to mechanized cultivation. “Now, we can meet our requirements and also make a profit out of produce by selling it”, he claimed.
Another farmer Nicolau Pascoal D’Melo said that since the last few years they have seen progress on doing mechanized cultivation, as it involves minimum cost and time. “In olden days full family members used to get involved in the cultivation works. Nowadays, we hardly find one or two members from the family taking an interest to step down in fields,” he said.
He said that the cultivation of fields in a mechanized way has helped a lot. “Firstly, the cost has come down from Rs. 20000 to four thousand. Besides, the time-saving factor has benefited a lot to the farmers. I can say that it is like a mobile farming activity, as within no time can cultivate thousands of square meters of fields”, he stated.
He thanked Fr. George for showing the way out, besides helping hand from the local MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco for ploughing and harvesting in mechanized ways.
J Santano Rodrigues, chairmen of Curtorim Bio-Diversity Management Committee said he and his committee are fully engaged in promoting the mechanized cultivation in Maina, besides other fields of Curtorim village.
“Farmers are used to mechanize harvesting for a very long time; however this mission of Fr. George doing mechanized cultivation has given new hopes to the farmers. A few years back some used to criticize Fr. George for introducing the mechanized initiative process in Maina. Now, everything has been changed and more and more fields are seen doing mechanized cultivation with the help of Fr. George”, he said.
He also said that now, labour charges have become a heavy burden on the farmers.
While a man who is on the mission of greening Goa Fr. George said that they want to show and prove that a large stretch of fellow land can be converted into green in quick time.
“The only requirement is efficient management. If one institution like Don Bosco Society can cultivate lakhs of fields in one day, just imagine if 10 more service providers come forward whole Goa can be a green Goa in no time”, he stated.
He said that if we all decided the whole Goa can be brought under cultivation if there is a will. “The government machinery, agriculture department, everybody put their hand we can do it in overnight”, he stated.
Fr. George further said at the initial stages farmers were wondering about mechanized cultivation. “However, in the first year, we planted around 50 thousand square meters. Second-year it was 1.50 lakh square meters of fields, thereafter 3 lakh square meters in the third year. Now, we can see that 90 per cent of the fields of their area are under mechanized farming”, he added.
He said quick time, saving money, no botheration for farmers, farmers are happy, we are happy, and hope the government is all happy because these lands are utilized and productions are going on.
