SANGOLDA: In today’s world, we hardly find people who do selfless service even with a strong financial background. Uday Dattaram Mandrekar from Sangolda is one such ‘messiah’ who has brought about a green revolution across several villages in Bardez.
For Uday, life has been a struggle, but also an inspiration to be a torchbearer for others. Born into a farmer’s family of five children, Uday, now in his late sixties, recollects his childhood days fondly even though they were full of hardships. “In the good old days when farming was a major occupation in Goa, families with many children would all be in their fields growing grains for themselves and for society. ‘Ukde tanoo’ or boiled rice was in demand then, be it for food or kanjee,” he reminisces.
As the children got educated and grew up, fieldwork continued; nobody abandoned the two acres of land they have always grown produce in. Uday, meanwhile, being quite a studious boy, managed to get a decent paying job at the NIO and worked there until retirement while at the same time putting in his time and energy into cultivating their family field. As the Sangolda fields are at a low level, due to government apathy and failure to desilt nullahs, these fields fall victim to flooding. Uday was not the one to surrender like many farmers have done these days. He used his expertise and knowledge to start cultivating fields at the fag end of the monsoon when the water level would recede and encouraged others also to do the same.
“I thought over it and devised a way out. Though the problem did not exist earlier in our youth, it has become severe now, and we have to cope with it. I motivated my neighbouring farmers to start cultivating paddy saplings in August and ensure that they maintain the green cover,” he said. He has been able to send this message to farmers of Saligao, Socorro, Guirim, and surrounding areas, and now they have formed a big army of farmers cultivating their fields by working around the flooding issues.
Uday goes all out in helping people in cultivating their land by assisting them in every possible way from planting to selling. “I have tied up with the Ponda-based Krishi Samruddhi Sahakari Sanstha, and they come and collect our grains and pay the price to our farmers, so all the farmers are getting all facilities at the doorstep, so why should they shy away from farming now,” asks Uday. He said ever since he has retired from NIO, he has taken the yoke upon him to be associated with farmers full-time and ensure that farming is maintained. “My satisfaction and reward are to see farmers cultivating and maintaining the green cover. My only concern is that farming should not stop,” he asserts.
Starting with just two acres as his family land cultivation, Uday today has brought around 40 acres of land under cultivation due to his untiring efforts. The farmers of his village look up to him as their idol and feel that he is truly the Dr Kurien of Bardez who has brought about a green revolution. Uday and his army of farmers grow the local Kochri variety of healthy brown rice without using any chemical fertilizers. They want more people to know about this rice and consume it for health reasons.
Despite bringing about a revolution in paddy farming, Uday still has two grievances which he feels need to be tackled on a war footing. “The government must find a solution to the field flooding in Sangolda and surrounding areas; desilting needs to be done, proper drains should be built and any construction coming up in non-agricultural land should be well-planned for water drainage,” he asserts. Second, he urges action against pests like peacocks and porcupines that threaten crops.
Uday’s heartfelt appeal to landowners
At any cost, please do not abandon your fields. A time may come when we will have lots of money and no good food and no land to cultivate because we may have buried our fields or sold them to builders, which is a big crime and a curse.
Selling your land or converting agricultural land to commercial will definitely not benefit you in the long run, so don’t do it
