Not many inherit a green thumb from their ancestors anymore. This lady did. Originally from Kudnem-Sanquelim, the Rane family settled in Porvorim where they cultivated all sorts of fruits in their kulagar. It was her father and uncle who motivated Prathama Rane to embrace agriculture as a career. “Farmers have to adopt new technology. Agriculture demands hard work and the crop must be protected,” feels Prathama who is keen in raising awareness among farmers in Goa. “One must not work for wages, but try to give extra in return. Be it work or knowledge, it should be a happy give and take,” says Prathama who likes sharing knowledge with the farmer community to increase their yield. Working for nine years at Ella Farm, she has earned their respect rightfully.
Surrounded by greenery and open spaces with birds chirping on the short, hybrid mango trees, Ela Farm offers the right environment for farming experiments where field assistant Prathama Rane (now Prathama Rohan Verekar) has been dedicating her research work to help the farmer community in the state fight and control pests. Readying mushroom spawn for farmers and educational institutions, procuring seeds of best varieties of fruits, ornamental and flowering plants, Prathama assists at the biocontrol, mushroom and seed laboratory at this spacious farmer’s training centre in Old Goa.
Believing in the amicable co-existence of humans, animals, birds and insects, the farmer’s training centre helps the farmers to get rid of the pests and insects that infest their crop in a bi-controlled manner “ meaning without using any chemical insecticides and pesticides. It’s the natural way of letting the eco-system control the situation and thrive. When it’s not possible to climb on high coconut trees to spray insecticides (which are in a way harmful too), these laboratory bred insects help, as they fly exactly to the affected parts of the tree and destroy the pests in a natural ways.
“In paddy, the pest attack is more in kharif season the period of larval pest attack is usually from the second week of July to last week of September (10 weeks). Whereas in coconut, the incidence of black headed caterpillar on coconut is only in Rabi season, from the second week of November to last week of May (28 weeks),” explains Prathama, who herself comes from an agricultural background. Living in a joint family of 13, she grew up in Maina Pilern at her family farm. She joined agriculture department in 2006 and her job mainly involves doing multiplication of two parasitoids, namely Tricogramma Chilonis and Bracon Brevicornis in a controlled laboratory conditions.
“Many of the natural enemies, mass-bred in the laboratory for use in field against crop pests, are dependent on either egg or larval stages of Corcyra due to the simple reason that it is easier and cheaper to produce natural enemies on different stages of Corcyra than on their original hosts,” briefs this friend of farmer who travels across Goa, especially areas like Marcel, Pilar, Sanquelim, Nuvem where the pest attacks are severe.
“We release 60,000 Bracons in Mapusa every 10-15 days, which comes to around 25-30 times in a year,” briefs Prathama. “We multiply the larva and per hectare 15,000 adults are released during evening time. In a bottle there are 100-150 and the Bracon adults are released twice a week and the requirement is 15,000 per hectare. The Trio cards are released twice a week and 15 cards are required per hectare,” she states.
Tricograma does wonders with crops like brinjal, chillies, tomatoes, sugarcane and paddy. While Tricogramma Chilonis is effective against larval pests, Bracon Brevcornis effective against black headed caterpillar in coconut, the host of both these parasitoids is Coryera Cephalonica (commonly called as rice meal moth or rice moth. “When the leaves of the banana plants or coconut palms get affected and are eaten up or get dry, these help to control the pests,” Prathama promises.
The centre interacts not only with farmers but assists school and college students, imparting free training to students who take up projects in mushroom cultivation. Speaking on the popular local variety of cowpeas produced in Goa, especially in Salcete, called alsande (red, bigger sized variety), Prathama says, “This particular variety of legume crop is highly depended on the climate and the soil, which is suitable in South Goa. Goa also grows cowpeas of small red as well as white variety and moong apart from local vegetables and fruits.”
Her laboratory makes the best seed available through the centres across the state in a subsidised rate. Seeds are tested, procured from outside the state as well as across the state from various farms and local farmers.
