the goan I network
PANAJI
Around Rs 16 lakhs was the money that came in from the community farming experiment undertaken in St Estevam. That means we made a profit of Rs 2 lakh (since the cost incurred in the experiment was around Rs 14 lakhs), Nestor Rangel, who led the project, said on Tuesday.
Rangel termed this a “reasonable” profit for a first-time project. Rangel led a team who successfully brought 5 lakh square meters of agricultural land under cultivation in the village of St. Estevam in Tiswadi.
Addressing a press conference in the church hall at St. Estevam, Rangel explained the manner in which the people in the area were mobilized with the idea of community farming with the help of the local parish priest Fr. Eusico Pereira and local sarpanch Joanita D’Costa and others.
Because of the success of the project, Rangel said that the villagers would strive to bring around 15 lakh sqmts under cultivation from next year.
Giving details about how as a community they could reduce the cost of cultivation from the normal average of Rs 6 per square meter to approximately Rs 3.50 per square meter, Rangel showed the series of steps taken, including the use of labour and mechanical implements in producing the right variety of rice for the soil in the area, mostly khazan lands.
Fr. Eusico said that initially what appeared to be difficult was made possible by the joint efforts of the villagers. He expressed happiness to see the revival of green fields in the village and exhorted other Goans to launch similar exercises in their respective villages instead of allowing builders to take over their agricultural lands with the help of unscrupulous politicians.
As reported in ‘The Goan’ in June, Rangel is not a traditional farmer but a 52-year-old electronic engineer, who 8 years ago gave up his electrometers and soldering irons for ploughs and sickles.
The experiment was a unique one in the state after decades of government officials and politicians heading Goa’s agriculture ministry struggling to revive paddy cultivation.
This is what makes the
efforts of the villagers of
St Estevam commendable.
