Alfred Fernandes
SANGUEM: It may seem rather unusual for a regular school to have a sprawling farmland on campus, but Fr Agnel High School at Pilar is not a regular school. It sports a 1,200 square metre plot of land that is used solely for the cultivation of vegetables. Interestingly, the principal cultivator is none other than the school’s headmaster himself, who assumes the role of both, an authority and a farmer without any qualms.
Fr Pio Furtado (sfx) has made it his mission to show his students that standing tall in life does not necessarily entail going after white-collar jobs. Avenues like agriculture, often dismissed as unviable career options, are in fact extremely
rewarding if enough effort is put in, he says.
It is this mindset that has spurred Fr. Furtado to sow a passion for agriculture among the young students at the school. Under their observant eyes, he has managed to successfully grow 22 varieties of vegetables since the year 2021, including broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, raddish, carrot, coriander, bottle gourd, brinjal, beetroot, potato, spinach and fenugreek. The priest, who dedicates three hours each day to agriculture, even tried his hand at zucchini, which is not usually grown in Goa, but managed to get a yield despite bad weather.
His greatest success story, however, is the cultivation of black rice, which is endemic to Northeast India, West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand. After obtaining the seeds from Aldona-based farmer Gaspar Fernandes and roping in a few labourers to till the field, Fr. Furtado began transplanting seeds that had already germinated, involving several awestruck students to assist him while also giving them tips on cultivation methods.
The results were astounding.
His very first attempt at cultivating the antioxidant-rich rice last year yielded a bumper crop of over 150kg of paddy. He distributed at least 30kg to the local farmers as seeds for further cultivation, and sold 110kg for Rs 200 per kg.
Recalling some similarly exciting moments in the field in the recent past, Fr Furtado says they recently reaped a single raddish weighing 750 grams, a bottle gourd weighing 3kg, brinjal weighing 767 grams and a turnip that weighed a little over one kilogram.
“Teachers take the students to the garden during their free time and teach them the basics of vegetable cultivation. While it is heartening to see students work in the garden, most parents, unfortunately, do not want their children to soil their hands. It hurts to see children yearning to venture into the vegetable garden but are held back by their parents, Fr Furtado rues.
That hasn’t stopped the kindly priest, however, from sowing a passion for agriculture among his students as he powers on with the support of his Society members, staff and teachers.
