The Goan village of St. Estevam revives collective farming for a reason

It’s no secret that Goa is going through major development with construction happening at almost every corner. There are building complexes coming up, bridges being built and even the highway is being expanded. It’s a lot for India’s smallest state to take. Unfortunately, all this is also taking a toll on more traditional occupations like fishing and farming which is what Goans have done in the villages for years. Real estate development seems to be on the rise and it is for this reason that the good villagers of St. Estavam have taken it upon themselves to revive farming and prevent the fields from being taken over.

The revival of traditional farming in Goa

The river island of St. Estavam is picturesque and has 250 hectares of fields that were once covered in weeds but owned by various people from the village. Now, the rains are almost over and the paddy fields are turning ripe for harvesting. 50 hectares of paddy fields to be exact. These fields are expected to yield 175 metric tonnes of raw paddy. The paddy comes from the Goa Dhan 1 variety of rice seed which is meant for ‘khazan’ lands or saline low-lying agriculture flat beds in Goa.
The locals have taken to farming these lands in the hope of preventing any gated communities from being built on them. There is a very real fear that outside parties could encroach on the agricultural lands and put up such kinds of communities. As it stands, they already foresee a cargo jetty being built on the opposite riverbank.
At first, this pilot project was not approved but 9 months later, it is being monitored by the state government. There are plans to put this into practice in every village in the state.