Let me unfold the narrative of how a government run farm turned into a profitable venture and go back in the past, to 1989 when it all began. It’s about the Kalay (Calem) farm, located in Sanguem and spread across 64 hectares, surrounded on the two sides by a river, and the other two by a railway line and a road to a mine.
In those days it was better known as a Russian farm since a family from the then Soviet Union used to live here in a small house which remains intact even now. The villagers still recollect the old man as a robust, well-built person who could wield any weapons in both hands comfortably. The Russian family perished during the Portuguese regime and the farmland became an evacuee property of the government and was, subsequently, taken over by Formento (Agriculture Department) to cultivate.
The only means of reaching this remote place was by railways with coal engine as bus service was absent. Those who were posted here either had to stay in the quarters or travel on their own means during the week days. The farm was mostly under sugarcane cultivation with mango, coconut, guava, chickoo plantation. The life here was simple. All the workers were from either Kalay or Costi village; only the staff from the Agriculture department was from outside.
The turning point
The turning point came with the decision of the government to appoint fresh agriculture graduates on the farm so that new technologies and innovative ideas could be initiated for better results. And I was the chosen one. I was selected to make the farm profitable. On day one when I landed at Kalay Farm, I was asked to live in the same house where the Russian family lived.
I began to explore all the areas and gauged the potential of the present cultivation on ground vis-a-vis the revenue generation and came up with an idea of making this farm to be a most sought after destination for various types of planting materials with true to type progeny. I wanted to do something which will change the landscape of the farm from its present scenario.
Metamorphosis of Kalay Farm
As a young graduate, I began in the right earnest by plotting all the calculation, types of crop to be taken up in order to fetch higher returns. I scouted from other farms for their availability of germ plasma. I tried to put to use the available resources which remained unused for decades. Then I approached the higher authorities with a proposal of permitting to run the farm as per my choice for six months and also suggested that if it does not turn commercial then they will be free to take any action on me. Believing in my positive attitude the concerned authorities at the helm decided to give me a chance. They had nothing to lose but if this initiative was successful, they would see profits.
Nursery management
With permission in hand we began to dismantle the existing system of farming. Firstly, I took all the workers into confidence. Our first step was to stop the sugarcane cultivation which engaged the workers for almost nine months in a year. My pet project of nursery management needed skilled workers so we started identifying the potential young workers who could be an assistant of the existing ones. I gave them a free hand to collect scion from the mother plants and progeny orchard initiated by me with proper mapping and sourced from different locations in order to produce true to type grafts for clienteles.
Digging out old iron pipelines below the ground we made grafting sheds in rows with open aeration to flow in and capped the grafted plant varieties wise with proper mixture for growth and sprayed adequate pesticides/insecticides to control any diseases or insect infections.
Planting material
We then moved to coconut and areca nut nurseries by bringing good harvested nuts from reputed farms located in Sanguem by identifying and selecting them at higher price as compared to what the farmers used to get in open market. All these efforts began to yield profusely. A ‘seeing is believing’ theory unfolded before our eyes making all the staff, workers and higher authorities that the gamble is paying handsomely.
Marketing concepts
Now, we turned to marketing by personally calling upon all the available nurseries in South Goa to come and purchase the quality planting material. We invited some government-run organisations too. As envisaged the revenue jumped four times as compared to the earlier existing mode of farming, which we discarded. The news of good planting material spread like wild fire and all private farms started coming to Kalay Farm to purchase their yearly requirement of coconut, areca nut, mango, cashew, pepper cuttings, guava, chickoo and breadfruit saplings. The flow of vehicles visiting the farm also helped the roadside shops to get business. We could contribute to the local economy.
Greenhouse in quarters
Buoyed by the success of nursery management, we turned our focus on the immensely potential area of ornamentals which had a readymade clientele in cities and towns. We began cultivating various types of roses in rows and from them we got eye buds grafting done on wild varieties of rose bushes which were later on shifted to smaller size bags for selling. We could create 40 varieties of different sizes of roses with multiple colour shades, never seen before.
We paid visits to the neighbouring states to procure shade loving ornamental plants which were cultivated in big green houses with aerial spraying of fertilisers and pesticides to enhance their proper growth.
Out of the box
There was a dilemma at Kalay farm as no such green house had been constructed till date so we adopted an ‘Out of the box’ initiative wherein all the unused quarters build for farm workers were identified and the tiles from the roof were removed and covered to create a suitable atmosphere for propagating shade loving plantlets in small bags in large quantity.
In this manner, all the mother plants procured were reproduced to a large extent which added up the revenue generation to a higher degree. However, as it normally happens an evil eye had other plans for Kalay farm and this initiative created a flutter in the corridors of powers wherein it was strongly objected as the premises were misused for other purpose. When the true light fell upon the higher authorities, it was appreciated that those unused quarters were ultimately utilised by us and put to maximum usage through a novel idea unheard in those days.
No one had ever thought that such concrete green house would be able to deliver the produce of planting items in such a congenial atmosphere of laterite stone and cement plaster. The aim was to do it with precaution and keeping away the entry of wild animals moving in the night hours on the farm. Even rats and rodents were kept out of bound as these nocturnal creatures prey upon anything for eating.
Side by side vegetable cultivation was also carried out to a large scale which included cabbage, knolkhol, cauliflower, beans, bhendi etc and was sold out locally as well as in the surrounding markets to the general public.
Working atmosphere on farm remains soothing in nature if the fruits of hard work herald a change in the life of workers and make them accountable and see the results unfold before their eyes. Thus the farm rose from a dormant period of its existent to a vibrant and sustainable stage of revenue generation due to the hard efforts of all those people who had worked on it during that period.
(The writer, former Deputy Director of Agriculture, manages ‘Kamat Securites’ and ‘Agri-Horti Consultancy Services’)
