PANJIM: Villages namely Netravali, Verlem are transforming rapidly as high productivity hubs of vegetables and milk. It has also witnessed drastic rise in fruit cultivations, especially strawberries.
Dairy tours to progressive dairy farms within the State were organised for dairy farmers of Netravali with an aim to motivate the farmers to practice modern techniques of feeding and management, which help to increase the quantity and quality of milk.
It started in 2016-17, when the Atal Gram Development Agency, Goa came into existence. It has taken up several projects with dual objectives — development of Netravali into a model village that uplifts the economic conditions of its villagers.
The immediate effect of these efforts was seen in six months with milk production soaring in Netravali village from 2,000 litres per day to 3,500 litres per day.
A study on the best practices being adopted in dairy development discovered that productivity of milk increases if the milch animals are fed with the leaves of the drumstick plant. In order to replicate the same, dairy farmers from Netravali village were supplied with drumstick saplings. Efforts were taken by the Atal Gram Yojana team to brief the dairy farmers regarding the importance of these plants in increasing the productivity of milk.
The main aim of this scheme is to reduce the dependency on the neighbouring villages for food supply and to increase the agricultural productivity in the State. The farmers were timely supplied with paddy seeds of Jyoti variety. “Also, substantial quantities of chilli saplings, tomato seedlings, brinjal saplings and seeds of various vegetables such as cluster beans, lady finger and red amaranth were supplied to the villagers as per the demands of the local farmers. Netravali has witnessed huge production of chillies (22,995 kgs), cluster beans (3,684 kgs), lady finger (6,301 kgs) and red amaranth (326 kgs), during the last two years,” said Vijay Saxena, joint director, Directorate of Planning, Statistics and Evaluation, who is also a Project Director of Atal Gram Development Agency.
He further added that in addition, various Self-Help Groups from the remotest village of Verlem, in the jurisdiction of Netravali Village Panchayat, are being assisted in the cultivation of strawberries on commercial scale for the last four years. Training sessions of various durations are being held for strawberry farmers in Verlem and Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra through reputed strawberry farmers.
“The strawberry farmers have earned Rs 11.25 lakh (2018-19), Rs 8.86 lakh (2019-20) and Rs 8.74 lakh (2020-21). The strawberry cultivation has also turned out to be a tourist attraction as large numbers of tourists have visited these farms during the last three years. Initially, the villagers are reluctant to undertake the cultivation of strawberries due to several predicaments as the field had to be endowed with drip irrigation facilities and importantly there was no permanent source of irrigation in the near vicinity of the field,” added Saxena.
The agency, along with the local villagers, laid a pipeline of 990 metres and the water was made available to the strawberry plantation from the natural source i.e. rivulet which made the impossible task of cultivating strawberries into an lucrative opportunity and it is yielding huge income for the villagers.
Cashew growers were also introduced to modern techniques used for cashew cultivation. They were supplied with Neem cake and rock phosphate to improve the quality and increase the quantity of cashew fruit and nuts.
