The very image of ‘Green Goa’ consists of rice fields and coconut trees with its friendly and contented people relishing fish, curry and rice.
Besides the pez or rice canji, the bhakri, vhodde, sanna, shevio, patolleo, dhonos are all rice products and the xit-koddi or rice and curry is our staple food.
GETTING BETTER
In recent years, we have seen a revival of rice cultivation for our own consumption and sale, especially in Santo Estevao, Santa Cruz, Cortalim, Chicalim, Curtorim, Chinchinim, Navelim. And now, it has reached Betalbatim.
This has largely been made possible by mechanisation, first with tractors for ploughing, then with the combine harvesters and finally with mechanical transplanters.
Grow rice, we must. In the 1990s, Fr George Quadros, sdb, was known for growing bananas in Sulcorna, South Goa, before being sent to the missions outside of Goa. He returned to Goa like an unlikely messiah of mechanical transplanting of rice. He sends an eloquent message through his work.
‘Sermanv naka, dekh zai’ (when translated from Konkani to English, it means, ‘We do not need a sermon; we need good examples and role models’). By George, We have one!
The Goencho Xetkar is another start-up inspired and mentored by him. A fresh agriculture graduate from Utorda, Dhannika Dias Barros Pereira, was the first lady to operate a rice transplanter.
And now, there is a young lady, named Ilma, doing likewise in Betalbatim, where mechanical transplanters entered the field this year.
MODERN SCENE
Dr KK Manohar, the rice breeder at ICAR-CCARI, has been working on Korgut rice for many years. He has developed two ‘pure lines’, Goa Dhan-1 (KS-12) of white grain, and Goa Dhan-2 (KS-17) of red kernel, both of with yield about 2.6 tonnes per hectare.
Dr KK Manohar, the rice breeder at ICAR-CCARI, has been working on Korgut rice for many years. He has developed two ‘pure lines’, Goa Dhan-1 (KS-12) of white grain, and Goa Dhan-2 (KS-17) of red kernel, both of with yield about 2.6 tonnes per hectare.
He has also created a hybrid variety of rice, Goa Dhan-4 (JK-238), from the cross between Jyothi and Korgut varieties that are popular in Goa. It is a red kernelled rice variety that is short (1.1 metres) and can be mechanically harvested.
The new variety does very well under normal rain-fed conditions, and yields 3.0 to 3.5 tonnes of grain per hectare (= 2.5 acres). If water from a pond or tank is available for protective irrigation, it yields up to 5.5 tonnes per hectare.
The youth are joining the process of technology upgrade of agriculture in Goa with much enthusiasm. It is my personal experience that the youth can achieve much more than we can dream if given an opportunity and a little appreciation.
Young professionals, especially engineers, have entered the field of agriculture in growing numbers over the last ten years.
The Goencho Xetkar start-up has begun using drones for spraying. ICAR-CCARI, Old Goa, has facilitated the development of a coco-bot, a robotic nut harvester. The Goa College of Agriculture is introducing its students to artificial intelligence (AI).
Agriculture in Goa is no longer the bullock plough, pickaxe and spade technology. There is a bright future for a greener Goa through GenNext.
(The author is the former Chairman of the GCCI Agriculture Committee, CEO of Planter's Choice Pvt Ltd, Additional Director of OFAI and Garden Superintendent of Goa University, and has edited 18 books for Goa & the Konkan)
