With yeoman efforts of Curtorim MLA Reginaldo Lourenco, “Saxtticho Koddo” achieves a first in Goa

PANAJI: With 2021 coming to a close, the farming locale of Cutorim in South Goa, also known as “Saxtticho Koddo” or the granary of Salcete, gets decked up for Christmas and the festival season, farmers in the otherwise laid-back, predominantly Catholic village in South Goa look back on their harvest and the year that was.

While the dark shadows of the ghostly Covid-induced lockdown still haunt the village-folk, the constituency has unwittingly achieved a prominent milestone in the entire State of Goa.

Curtorim is located on the banks of the river Zuari, in South Goa. The residents of this village have over centuries built a bond with rice and farming, so profoundly that it earned the village the title of “Saxtticho Koddo” in Konkani, which when translated into English means “The Granary of Salcete”. As a matter of fact, today Curtorim can be easily called the rice granary of Goa.

Firstly, a team of 60 community farmers transplanted 1,15,000 m of land in Maina Curtorim in July this year, through an initiative called ‘7 to 7’ spanning 12 hours, achieving a record of sorts.

The farmers successfully replanted hundreds of paddy seeds covering 25 acres of farmland within a day’s time.

“We are trying to offer solutions to the problem of labour shortages and the non-availability of machines. We are working on getting the task done sooner, with efficiency and on time,” Fr George Quadros, who led the project was quoted as saying by the Times of India in its July 2021 report.

This community farming initiative was taken up without availing of the Directorate of Agriculture’s community farming scheme with the farmers transplanting about three lakh square metres in the village over a period of time, and eventually covering a total of four lakh square metres of land this season.

And all this would not have been possible without the help of MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, who chipped in with tractors and other mechanized farming equipment, besides motivating the farmers not to give up tilling the land.

According to official records about 15 years ago, the total farmland under cultivation in Lourenco’s constituency (when he was first elected MLA) was less than 35 percent and fast dwindling. Today it’s more than 95 to 97 percent, earning Curtorim the moniker of “food granary of Salcete” or rather of the entire state. By next year, 100 per cent of the farm land will be under cultivation, Lourenco has promised.

Were it not for MLA Lourenco and his team, who provided local farmers with modernized technology such as harvesting and sowing machines, tractors and other equipment, they would have long abandoned their fields and the concept of mechanized farming would have never seen the light of day.

Mechanized cultivation that was stuck to only 50,000 square metres for a long time in Curtorim, this year crossed around 4 lakh square meters of agricultural land, the Herald confirmed.

And prodding the 40-odd farmers of Maina-Curtorim to reach the 4 lakh square meters mechanized cultivation target was Lourenco’s team working in the background with Fr Quadros leading the way.

Speaking to the Herald, one of the farmers from Maina, John Rebello was quoted as saying: “in the earlier days all the farmers were engaged in cultivating the fields manually and it used to take a lot of time, besides manpower and money. However, with the blessing of ‘Khandi Khuris‘, we shifted to mechanized cultivation. Fr. George Quadros has shown us the way out when a maximum number of farmers faced hardships in order to take forward the tradition of farming.”

Rebello claimed that nearly 4 lakh square metres of fields, belonging to 40 farmers have now shifted to mechanized cultivation. “Now, we can meet our requirements and also make a profit out of the produce by selling it”, he said.

And all this would have never have been possible, if Lourenco had not to do his bit – help the farmers with mechanized implements to achieve this noteworthy goal, that both Curtorim and the entire State of Goa is proud of!