Prutha Goa

Vince Costa is a singer and songwriter, and now documentary filmmaker from Goa who has put Curtorim on the world map, specifically its rice fields. His documentary Saxtticho Koddo-The Granary of Salcete has won Best Short Documentary at the Asia Independent Film Award 2018 and has been shown at the Royal Anthropological Institute’s Film Festival in Bristol in March 2019 as well as the Ethnografilm Festival in Paris in April 2019. The founder of Red Mackerel communications company, Vince Costa is driven to research and document stories of Goa that encapsulate its culture and distinct identity and that are threatened into oblivion by development and indifference. Saxtticho Koddo is the commendable result of the efforts of Red Mackerel. Curtorim is a primarily agrarian village that is famous for its rice cultivation, a feature that defines its intrinsic character. This definition is extended to the rest of Goa while the documentary weighs the socio-economic implications of rice farming

India, as a predominantly rural economy, has much to look forward to in the area of agriculture to seed the economic progress of this nation. However, agriculture related policies do not dominate political discussions and the apathy towards this sphere is apparent in the drought situation faced by the nation most recently (2015-16). Dr Yoginder K Alagh, who is Professor Emeritus at Sardar Patel Institute of Economic and Social Research in Ahmedabad and Chancellor of the Central University of Gujarat, provided some insight into the mechanics of agriculture leading the way to India’s fiscal development at the International Centre Goa, Dona Paula. Speaking on the future of Indian agriculture, Dr Alagh expounded that a perspective is needed in terms of agricultural development. The Planning Commission has been abolished, making way for Niti Aayog, which has its own policies. Though the Niti Aayog has been asked to develop a perspective in terms of agriculture, the common complaint Dr Alagh