Goa priest, model in contract farming project

Two persons from totally different streams have been instrumental in reviving barren paddy fields of a village through contract farming. Father Patric D’Souza and international model Tinu Verghis 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 back and now 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 many top brands, was the first one to offer her paddy field, ad-measuring around 6,000 sq mts, for the innovative farm arrangement between two parties.