MARGAO: Encouraged by their success at Diguam Bhundh, Chinchinim, the Agricultural Club of Chinchinim together with the local Comunidade has now ventured to cultivate the neglected fields across National Highway 66, next to the historic St Sebastian Chapel. The vast expanse of fields along the bypass road covers an area of around 30 hectares. This is a large land holdings majority comprising the Comunidade of Chinchinim and Deussua, and its tenants and other individual landowners, roughly 100 members.
“In the times gone by, these fields were cultivated both in the rainy season ‘sorod’ and the summer season called the ‘Vaigan’. A barrage was built downstream with coconut trunks and heavy wooden planks, called ‘Patto’. Hence the name Patto fields. Traditionally, rice used to be cultivated in the rainy season, and in the summer, rice along with chillies, sweet potatoes and watermelon used to be grown here,” said Agnelo Furtado, President of the Chinchinim Agricultural Club (CAC) and Chinchinim Comunidade. “This is a tradition long lost, due to high labour costs and devastation of the fields by cattle,” lamented Furtado.
In the recent past, CAC along with the Don Bosco Institute had successfully converted fallow land into flourishing paddy fields on Diguam Bundh.
“We now hope to regain our old traditions, with the help of Fr George Quadros of the Don Bosco Institute and his dedicated team of workers. We are equipped with the latest farm machinery of tractors, transplanters and now a drone, to facilitate spraying of fertilizers and pesticides efficiently and economically,” said Furtado.
Fr Quadros pointed out that such use of technology leads to a turnover in agriculture where with less work, there is a higher recovery for the farmer.
“This is the principle we are working on, and we hope that with this advancement, many more farmers will go back to their fields in the years to come. We are glad that some have already come back,” he added.
Fr Quadros also spoke about how the drone helps the farmer and the fields. “Earlier, the farmer was handling all this by himself and it was hazardous for him, as a person in the field, to do that because he was breathing in these fumes. Now, a machine is going to do that and so all three are saved – the farmer, the soil and the chemicals, as we are going to use far less than what has been traditionally used,” he added.
