Farmers from the locality have given up farming for the past 15 or so years. The land is kept idle and has turned to a grazing field for animals.
Cuncolim was known once upon a time for its farming. The land in the area is fertile and irrigation in the area was good. There were 12 bandharas in addition to six smaller ones providing water for agriculture but despite all of this, the land is still barren today.
History tells us that farmers in the area would produce thousands of tonnes of paddy in a year with two successful yields per annum. But the newer generation barely goes out to get their feet dirty. In spite of numerous government schemes, facilities, financial help and subsidies, farmers show no interest in cultivation of this land.
Even the efforts of Cuncolim MLA Rajan Naik to motivate farmers to get back to cultivation of their fields bore no fruit. This is primarily because there isn’t much profit in the business. Mukund Dessai, a farmer from the area mentioned that his father, forefather and himself toiled in the fields but his sons aren’t ready to take on the responsibility especially because the income is low.
One of the major problems plaguing these farmers is stray cattle who enter the fields and destroy them. It isn’t possible to fence the field. Additionally, labour is hard to come by. Labourers demand a lot of money which the farmers cannot afford to pay, noted Dessai.
Poor rainfall also affects the yield while the government and agriculture department aren’t concerned about checking soil quality. Equipment is another major concern and farmers claim that the agriculture department doesn’t provide machinery like tillers, tractors, harvesters and other such equipment on time.
Another farmer, Vishnu Dessai said, “Agriculture officers aren’t taking a keen interest in providing facilities to us. They think their work is just to maintain administration. I appeal to the government and the agriculture minister, Ramesh Tawadkar to send officers to the fields. Planning cannot be done sitting in an AC office.” He added that the smaller farmers were treated badly as well saying that landlords and big time farmers are treated well.
Schemes aplenty have been introduced for them but to avail of these schemes, a lot of paperwork has to be filled out.
The former chief minister, Manohar Parrikar had proposed to put all farmers cultivating paddy under the support price scheme but it turns out that only the farmers selling their paddy to government recognized agencies benefit from this. Farmers demand to extend this scheme to everyone, whether the paddy is sold or kept for consumption. “All farmers who cultivate must benefit from the support price scheme. Only then, more people will be inclined to take up the profession,” said Dessai.
Government agriculture officers, however, have a different story to tell. Some officers claim that the farmers aren’t ready to put in the hard work necessary and do not consider agriculture work professional. They added that the farmers must approach farming with a professional attitude and not treat it as a part-time job and if they utilize schemes to their benefit and apply modern techniques, then the business would be profitable.
Due to the demand of white collared jobs by the younger generation, most of the land is kept uncultivated.
Farmers, experts and government authorities must come together to give a boost to agriculture or Goa will lose its age-old tradition.
