PANAJI
The extended rainfall in the State has affected crops and horticulture produce dampening the farmers’ spirits and their hard work going in vain.
Like in other places, Goa too is witnessing global warming-induced rainfall and weather change pattern that doesn’t bode well for agriculture.
While the untimely rains have allowed untimely blooms in cashews and mango trees, this bloom would also be washed out due to the rain, affecting the next harvest. Both the kharif and rabi crops have been affected, says farmers in North Goa.
The kharif crop is harvested from September till the beginning of October and dried in the open. Some of the farmers were lucky enough to dry their paddy, but those who delayed harvesting, could not manage to dry it due to untimely rain, humid climate and the absence of sunshine.
A farmer from Curtorim, J Santan Rodrigues, chairman of Curtorim Biodiversity Management Committee, shares, “As the rain continues even in November, sowing of the next crop (rabi) will be delayed. Due to the extended rain, the seeds will have to be sowed in the dry upper areas, and not in low-lying plains and transplanted after a month. Coincidently, the seeds also are not available at the agriculture department as yet. So the entire rabi crop is sure to be delayed.”
Into community farming for the past few years, Curtorim has now over 2000 farmers, some own land, some are landless and others are farm labourers.
Santan, who also leads the local Curtorim Union Farmers’ Club, adds, “Luckily, I could dry my kharif crop, but cannot sow rabi crops due to unavailability of seeds. Actually, all the farmers have to sow at the same time, because if a lone field is sowed, the sparrows eat it up. When all the fields are ready to reap at the same time, the sparrows have lots to eat, and so the damage is leveraged and is not limited to only one. But the rain is hampering our farming activities.”
Around 40 hectares land is being cultivated by using Curtorim lake water, and another 50 hectares with the Maina lake, both of which are reservoirs. In October the local farmers construct bandhara and by November 15 these lakes are full with water which is used for the second crop of the year. But since it is raining continuously the reservoirs are already full and there are no fields seen around. This is another hassle, laments Santan.
If there are some unexpected showers here and there, for a day or two, it’s negligible. The farmers are not affected by such showers, but if the untimely rain continues for days, it damages the crop produce.
Explains Ashok Joshi, a farmer from Valpoi, “Also, post-monsoon, the winter season should follow, but if the rains continue, there is no winter, which is necessary for blossoming. If the blossom in mangoes and cashews is delayed, the crops next year also will be delayed.”
Progressive farmer Nilesh Velguenkar from Dabal counts his financial losses into lakhs. “During the last 15 months, I have had losses of around Rs 4.5-5 lakh. The rain has caused much damage to my crops of areca nuts, coconuts, pepper, bananas and vegetables. Also, various machinery and agriculture equipment got damaged due to incessant rains and had to be repaired by spending Rs 50,000. I got partly paid for the damages by the agriculture department, but we have to bear the prime loss.”
Nilesh’s father Damodar Velguenkar (87), a farmer for five decades, adds, “This year from January till November, for almost 11 months we are witnessing rain. There were floods too in July. I have not seen such floods in the last 50 years. The 800 kg dried areca nuts stored in our special room were spoiled due to the flood water. The dry coconuts stored for extracting oil got washed away. Around 50 banana trees fell, pepper plants rotted. Vegetables like mulo, tambdi bhaji, bhendo, vaal etc grown for home consumption also got damaged totally.”
Brothers Pandurang and Mohan Samant from Nirankal also suffered losses due to the rain and floods. Dilip Tendulkar’s farm machinery got damaged, while father-son duo Nagesh and Varad Samant Dilip who are into vegetable farming, had to suffer losses due to damaged crops.
