Panaji: Two people from totally different
streams have been instrumental in reviving the barren paddy
fields of a village near here through contract farming.
Fr Patric D'Souza, an environmentalist-priest, and
Tinu Verghis, an international fashion model, came together
two years back to herald contract farming, for the first time
in Goa, at Pillar, a village on the city's outskirts.
"It started almost two years now and I am getting good
response from the paddy field owners who are not able to
cultivate their land," said D'Souza, a priest from the Society
of Pillar, a wing of the Catholic Church.
The society's Nature Farm wing has taken up the task
of executing contract farming at fallow lands in and around
the village.
Mumbai-based Verghis, who has walked the ramp for top
brands like GUCCI, Christian Dior and Prada, was the first one
to offer her paddy field, ad-measuring around 6,000 sq mts,
for the innovative farm arrangement between two parties.
The land was tilled last year and since then, D'Souza
has received several other offers, mostly from Goans who are
abroad and don't want their land to be kept uncultivated.
However, there is no monetary transaction involved in
the exercise and the Society of Pillar uses the produce to
feed students and orphans at institutions run by it.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, March 18, 2010, 13:47