H.R. Prabhudessai
Agriculture, which many think as “ugly culture”, is a noble profession. The young generation of farming community are not ready to venture into their forefather’s profession due to its non-remunerative and unpredictable nature.
In fact, the state produces different vegetables in three different seasons. It would be worthwhile to take up an exercise to document the per unit productivity of all these crops which are cultivated by Goan farmers across the State. We don’t have a data on the waste lands and rice fallows which are kept that way because of several reasons like stray cattle menace, scarcity of labour and improved implements for taking up sowing of pulses like green gram and black gram which have huge potentialities in Goa due to high residual soil moisture after the rice crop is harvested. The state department do have schemes for green gram and groundnut but lots have to be done in this area. We are wasting a valuable natural resource .I myself tested several varieties suited under rice pulse cropping system. Another crop worth mentioning is peanut or groundnut which has huge potential in Goa both in kharif situation as an intercrop in coconut or young cashew plantation. The trials on Confectionery Groundnut varieties from BARC and ICRISAT have tremendous scope in Goa. Incidentally, I must state that we rank at number three in India as regards the Groundnut per unit production. And with proper package for Alsando green gram and Black gram a rice farmer can reap yield up to 1000 kg lha within 4 to 5-month time frame. Fetching him lher handsome income. They are highly remunerative crops, need practically no irrigation if sown timely (November 2nd week) The farmer reaps twin benefit by cultivating these crops. One is he will harvest the crop and earn from the grain within a time span of 4 months having ready market and secondly will enrich his farm by addition of nitrogen fixing bacteria(rhizobium)in root nodules being leguminous crops. Besides a dairy farmer can get nutritious green fodder for his cattle. I fully agree that Goa is a predominantly horticulture based state but then what about per unit productivity of these horticultural crops?? Can we compete with other states? Last week, I came across a report in one of the local dailies about only one cucurbit namely the” touxem” or cucumber. Cucurbetacea includes all the vines belonging to the gourd family namely the ridge gourd, bottle gourd, snake gourd, bitter gourd, ash gourd etc. Other crops which find a place in farmers cultivation practice is crops like water melon and various melons which are necessarily cultivated in rice fallows. After the rice crop is harvested. One can find heaps of these vegetable diversity in Goan market during the Ganesh Chaturthi days. We need to document the price fetched by the grower and seller for these agricultural commodities’ if possible regulate it since most of the time the farmers sell them for exorbitant price specially during the Festive time like Chaturthi. The said article states that the cucumber farmer can fetch an income of Rs 40,000
For meeting the herculean task, it would be worthwhile for the Agriculture Department to go head on and conduct series of Extension sessions in the infrastructure they already have like the Farmer’s training Centre at Old Goa ATMA and Krishi Vigyan kendras (KVKs). It would also be ideal to start up education camps. There is a need to work out the Economic viability of various agricultural enterprises within the State. The Agricultural school at Savoi Verem and Agricultural Institution at Sulccorna are good beginnings’ the immediate and mute question for next 900 days can Goa as a State double farmer’s income by 2020. “Yes we can and together we shall” said Barack Obama after taking over as the President of the United States to tackle the problem of terrorism. That resolve is necessary at the Planning and Execution level if at all we wish to respond to Hon’ble Prime Minister’s clarion call. Bringing prosperity though efficient Management of our Natural resources appears to be the key to meet the challenge before us.
