Over the years the youth from the coastal belt of Canacona were attracted to the fast money spinning business of tourism leaving the hinterland far behind economically. However, now that is set to change with active support from the Goa Agricultural Department. The youth from the hinterland are now fast catching up with Hi-tech farming.
As tourism became the prime business of Canacona Taluka offering fast and quick money it was a Herculean task to motivate the youths, who were mostly qualified and unemployed, to start agriculture as a business activity. A training session, in which about 60 youths from the taluka participated, was held and later self-help groups were also motivated. Some youth like Prasad Velip, Brijesh Faldesai and others opted for open cultivation of chillies, cluster beans, lady fingers, etc with drip irrigation and plastic mulching and earned a bumper crop with a profit of as high as Rs 15 lakhs a season. Others took a big leap and opted for closed cultivation under polyhouses under controlled conditions which attracts a subsidy of 100% and plantation material @ 50% which has a maximum ceiling and grew Gerbera, Orchids, Coloured Capsicum, Ginger, etc. Right now three polyhouses are cultivating Gerbera flowers. Ajit Poi, a progressive farmer and a state awardee, is sending these flowers to Bangalore and other major flower markets in India.
Farmers are now reluctant to cultivate coloured capsicum as they have found out that this crop is not resistant to the wilt disease and have opted for ginger cultivation.
The most desirable and suitable crop for Goan climatic condition is orchids as observed from the last couple of years from the experience of orchid farmers.
The orchid polyhouse projects mostly are of 2000 to 4000 sq mts range and are found in Agonda, Shristal, Poinguinim, Loliem, Cotigao and Cola village panchayats all over Canacona Taluka. Projects are complete in all aspects and flowering has already started in about 16 of this polyhouses with a steady production of over 50,000 sticks per week. These plants require bare minimum of fertiliser and pesticides.
There is an urgent need of the after care services of this polyhouse structures, as technical knowhow is continuously required to be updated for which the Agriculture Dept comes handy. The zonal office at Canacona, headed by ZAO Shivram Naikgaonkar, is putting all efforts to see that the farmers get the best output from the farming activity and is evident from the fact that maximum number of awardees are from Canacona Taluka.
Naikgaonkar said Goa was already on the national map of the country for the supply of orchid flowers. These are of better quality with 10 to 15 flowers per stick compared to about 5 flowers per stick which are imported from Thailand earlier.
He stressed an urgent need for better handling facilities for the harvested products, cold storage, and proper packing to minimise wastage and maximise profits for the farmer, and stressed a need for the formation of an “Orchid Society” of the farmers to manage marketing of the flowers.
