QUEPEM
Not often are stocks of a fruit completely sold out on the farm itself, but visitors to two villages in Neturlim-Sanguem simply cannot miss out on freshly grown strawberries.
Farmers in Tudav and Verlem, the two villages in Neturlim, have been successfully cultivating strawberries since the last five months.
In November 2018, three self-help groups of farmers grabbed the opportunity to cultivate strawberries under the Atal Gram Yojana Scheme and the technical guidance of Zonal Agriculture Office (ZAO) of Sanguem.
The ZAO also guided farmers on controlling pest and diseases, while the chairman of Atal Gram Yojana (AGY) Subhash Velip kept in constant touch with the ZAO for guidance to the farmers.
South Goa MP Narendra Sawaikar along with the in-charge of AGY Saxena and officials of ZAO Sanguem conducted a guided tour of the strawberry farm during the harvest season.
They guided the groups about important aspects of marketing and also suggested that Goa Horticulture Corporation can market the produce.
A special programme to officially launch the season’s strawberry cultivation by three self-help groups of Verlem and Tudav villages had taken place in December 2018.
Later, one stall was set up to sell strawberries from these farms during a two-day krishi mela at Curchorem by the ZAO. The strawberries were sold out within minutes.
According to Sanguem Zonal Agriculture Officer Raghunath Morajkar, the AGY Chairman Subhash Velip had contacted the MD of Goa Horticulture Corporation to extend full support to sell the strawberry produce, but the farmers were already selling their produce to visitors at the farm and hence, there was no surplus produce left to sell in the open market.
About 40 households in the villages of Verlem and Tudav have benefitted from the cultivation of strawberries.
The cultivation is spread across an area of 4500 square metres and 30,000 high-yielding varieties of strawberry saplings namely sweet Charlie, Kamaruja, Nabila, winter star, Elina, San Andreas (SA) and R-2, are cultivated by the self-help groups.
The strawberry saplings have been procured from strawberry farms in Wai, Mahabaleshwar, a famous hill station in Maharashtra. The strawberries are being produced in the village over a period of 6 months (November to April). Savio Gracias from Margao who recently visited the strawberry farm at Verlem along with his friends said visitors can buy freshly plucked strawberries at Rs 80 per packet. Foreign tourists and Goans who throng to see the strawberry farm buy the produce in bulk, he added.
As of now, there are no exact figures of the total crop yield this season as almost all the harvest is sold at the farm itself thereby boosting the moral of the farmers.
