Team Herald
Vasco: He is a priest. He is a scientist. Both the priest and the scientist in him combined to make Rev. Fr Dr Bolmax Pereira, to lead the youth of the St Francis Xavier Church, Chicalim descend into the local paddy field to do ‘Tombop’ and ‘Vompop’ (in local parlance) which means plucking the seedlings and transplanting of paddy seedlings.
Thus, agricultural activity in the village came alive, in a show of community participation in farming.
In a press release, Cyril Fernandes, Chicalim local and an environmentalist stated that the students of Regina Mundi High School from class seven to post-graduate students from the Goa University were seen engaged in this activity, their knees bent the whole day. Over a dozen such young students joined the local traditional farmers and farm workers in this annual activity of farming.
This is the second year in running that the local parish priest who has completed his Ph.D. on Goa’s Wetlands has been encouraging the local youth towards such farming activity. Since the time he has taken over the parish affairs of the St Francis Xavier church, the activities in the village have received a shot in the arm especially in the field of environment.
The highlights of Monday's farm activity were the power tilling carried out by the youngest participant Master Caden Fernandes. Caden is just 12 years old, a class seven student in Regina Mundi High School, in the village where most of the kids study. The lad valiantly and expertly tilled the power machine and completed the entire exercise over the 10,000 sq. mts paddy field, solo.
The local farm owner Inacio Caetano Fernandes praised Fr Bolmax for encouraging the youth of the village towards such traditional activity. He claimed that today’s youth are not getting attracted to the traditional occupations. However, he claimed Fr Bolmax has changed that with his arrival in the village and the youth are coming to help the local villagers in all such traditional occupations.
Dr Fr Bolmax himself in his humility stated that the youth are the future of Goa. He said, “it is our duty to show our love towards our traditional occupations before they are lost to history. He praised Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant for proposing the revival of the rural economy in the post-Covid era.
The Chicalim Village Development Committee has already submitted a detailed rural economy revival plan for Chicalim and waiting for the Chief Minister’s response. The youth were served the traditional ‘Pez’ midway into the activity followed by ‘Xitt-Koddi’ to help complete the farming activity.