Miguel Braganza
Two days after Sao Joao, I was at the house where my senior in the Directorate of Agriculture, Goa, Fernando do Rego, who lived in Fontainhas, Panaji. His publications from 1979 to 2019, have contributed greatly to our knowledge and understanding of Goan mango varieties. The breadfruit tree that had stopped bearing fruit at his home ever since he passed away in 2020, had suddenly borne fruit. It would be its last gasp because the tree was severely infested with stem and bark borer. Fruiting is a tree’s attempt to perpetuate itself. Fortunately, it already has a grown-up root sucker as its legit successor. My advice to his son, Arvind, was to cut the old tree and give the sucker the opportunity to grow into a majestic tree.
Incidentally, I was returning from a memorial eucharistic celebration for the agriculture officer and deputy of Director of Agriculture in Goa, Frieda Barreto, who’s the first lady agriculture graduate in India. Enroute to the Rego house, I passed ‘Precy’ building, wherein lived S. R. Nadkarni, former director of Agriculture and the original ‘Paddy Man’ of Goa, Daman and Diu. Given to hold a handful of rice, he could tell the name of the rice variety. I know only of his assistant, Filsu from Azossim, who could do likewise though she had not done any formal studies in agriculture. They grew and maintained all varieties of rice grown in Goa, Daman and Diu as a live museum and germplasm bank at Ela Farm. The Goa College of Agriculture that is now established at Ela could revive this. It would be a fitting memorial to this man.
My appointment letter as an assistant agriculture officer (AAO) was signed on June 30, 1983, by Nadkarni. I was to be posted at Daman. I refused to accept the order. He reprimanded me for ‘trying to dictate terms even before I joined the service’. The director issued a transfer order and posted me at Bicholim against a vacancy created by it. He retired that evening. The Zonal Officer (ZAO) there was considered harsh and I was advised by all to go to Daman instead. I joined at Bicholim on the next day and ZAO Prakash Narayan Shukla guided my career path like my guardian angel.
Though my official designation was AAO-Manures and Fertilizers, the ZAO allowed me to assist the officers in charge of the tractors and bulldozers as well as mango grafting. I could teach the Malis how to do epicotyl or stone grafting that was a ‘brand new’ technique still in the research journals. It is still in vogue because it reduced costs and logistics. We introduced grafted cashew varieties into farmers’ plantations and increased yields. Tractor operations were streamlined and executed with all machinery in one village at a time. These are simple innovations that bore fruit and continue to inspire me and others to do even better.
