Thoda hatt ke….

VOL ❸ No. 10 DON BOSCO COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE – SULCORNA 28TH OCT 2016

WORLD FOOD DAY

DBCA celebrated the World Food Day on 15th October,

2016, with various competitions like poster making,

rangoli , cooking competition and a small session for the

Std. V students of Don Bosco Farm High School. Ms.

Andrea Cheradil and Bro. Ryan Mascarenhas explained to

the students about world food day and importance of

pulses.

Students were then given the task of making posters to

put what they understood on the paper. The response

was very nice. Little Miss Ankita and her group from Farm

High School won the first prize. Fr. Alwyn D’Souza,

Director of DBCA thanked the school students and

teachers from school for participating in the event.

It was indeed a colourful and busy day for the students who were juggling with the three competitions. The poster

competition was on the WFD 2016 theme “Climate is changing; food and agriculture must change too” but the

participants prepared their posters absolutely opposite to the theme.

The rangoli competition did not have any specific theme but the contestants came up with very relevant themes like

“organic agriculture”, “global warming”, “save the girl child”, etc. The peculiarity in this competition was that the rang

(colour) of the rangoli were natural fillers like leaves, flowers, stones, soil or compost, ... full, crushed or powdered.

The main attraction of the WFD 2016, the cooking competition, turned out to be a great talent hunt for the hidden chefs

of DBCA. The rules for cooking were that the groups should prepare the food items on fuel-wood chullas with pulses as

the main ingredient. The second criterion was that the dish should represent a particular state and the presentation had

to be done accordingly.

There were five groups in all, representing five different states of India. The dishes prepared were Stuffed moong chilla

(Rajasthan), Stuffed pulses vegetable rolls and canapé or mayonaise baskets (Goa), Ghogre/cutlets and green peas kheer

(Maharashtra), Moong tadka and jeera rice (Punjab) & Sukhiyan and Pari puwada (Kerala). Two students from each group

dressed up in the traditional dress and spoke as much as they could manage in the language of that particular state to

impress the judges.

DBCA CH!MERA

Dr. Cassie Rodrigues, Fr. Alwyn D’Souza and Mr. Miguel Braganza had a tough time judging all the three competitions.

There were some ties here and there but the judges did a great job in determining the top three.

We concluded the day by celebrating the colourful festival of Dusshera/Navratri. The brave boys of DBCA performed a

dance as a tribute to the Indian Soldiers who lost their life in the Uri attacks. Mr. Parag Gawas explained us about the nine

different forms (avatar) of goddess Durga with the help of nine girls of DBCA who were dressed representing each form.

The boys and girls also performed some traditional arts like Ghumat arti (Goa) and Garbha (Gujarat). It became more

enjoyable when the teachers and non-teaching staff also joined the Gharbha dance.

The whole programme of Dusshera was choreographed by Ms. Pratiksha Dabolkar, Assistant Professor of Botany, and it

was possible to execute it successfully only because of her hard work and active encouragement.

- Andrea Cheradil, Akshay Parab & Shweta Gaonkar, S.Y. B.Sc (Agri)

We dream about some things in

the hope of accomplishing it

someday; but we need to chase

the dreams in order to turn them

into reality. If you have a goal,

move towards achieving it.

Another thing I would like to pen

down is you should always

research and update yourself and

also polish your skills to achieve

your goals.

Confidence is the greatest factor

by which one can ensure that

one reaches the stars. “Don’t do

things because others tell you,

but do it for your satisfaction and

happiness.”

A little bit of dedication ... and a

lot of hard work ... can make you

successful. So try not to have

only goals in your life, but also

work to achieve them.

- Elijah D’Souza, F.Y. B.Sc (Agri)

DREAM HIGH TO

ACHIEVE HEIGHTS

Who said Botany is boring? Floral Biology is fun!

Most of the students are fresh on Mondays and get exhausted as the weekend

approaches but, here at DBCA-Sulcorna it is exactly the opposite. The S.Y.

B.Sc.(Agri) students wait eagerly for Friday’s practical session in Plant

Breeding as it is very interesting and enjoyable.

Our Plant Breeding practical is conducted by the young and dynamic Assistant

Professor, Ms. Pratiksha Dabolkar, who teaches us about floral biology and

hybridization techniques in crop plants in a way that is just out of the world!

The most interesting part of our practical is going out in field, finding different

flowers and observing their unique characteristics.

Ms Pratiksha Dabholkar is motivational teacher. Her teaching skills are

excellent, she is very supportive and always ready to help the students.

- Krutika Gaonkar, S.Y. B.Sc (Agri)

It’s Transplanting Time

On Monday, 24th October we were given the task of puddling and transplanting of paddy by System of Rice Intensification

(SRI). In the morning session, our boys worked really hard with pickaxe and fawdas to prepare the bunds and puddle the

paddy field. Once this was done, it was the show time for girls. In the afternoon session, we started transplanting the 11-

days old rice seedlings using SRI system with 25 X 25 cm spacing. The seedlings were raised by Dapog method. Andrea,

Abhishek and Akshay separated the individual seedlings as they were unwell and could not enter the field . The rest of us

transplanted the plots allotted for Crop Production by the students for hands-on learning. On Friday 28th October, we

planted setts of fodder grass and rooted cuttings of mulberry under the guidance of Rajan Shelke Sir. He and Satish Patil

Sir have been with us throughout the process of growing rice and have given us all the knowledge they had about this

topic. Shivama Oppari & Sergio Fernandes, S.Y. B.Sc (Agri)

It's Time for Composting

On 27th October 2016, it was time to learn all about earthworms and dung, hands-on! Yes!! Vermicomposting!!!One of

our Agronomy 111 practical sessions is to prepare a vermicompost and the F.Y. B.Sc(Agri) students were taken to the

vicinity of the polyhouse to prepare the compost. Batch I was accompanied by Ms. Shubhangini Thakre and Batch II by Ms.

Sumati Chavan. Batch II had set up an artificial bed i.e. readily available plastic bed used for composting and Batch I

prepared the compost bed by digging the land near the polyhouse. the students chopped off the hay into pieces which

served as the initial layer for the compost. The shredded biodegradable waste and cow dung were spread over this.

The astonishing moment was when three of our students;

Mahendra, Karishma and Pratibha dipped their hands

into the fresh cow dung to prepare the slurry with some

water. A big pat! This was later sprinkled on hay. It's a

vermicompost... so earthworms can't survive in the

scorching sun. To protect the creepies and to retain the

moisture a shade was set up. It was really a sweaty and

tiresome task which was achieved by support offered by

each member of the group and the guidance of Asst.Prof.

Sumati Chavan. We thank our teachers for taking up the

initiative of teaching us the vermicompost process as it is

organic .... and all that we do at DBCA is organic !!

Liza Pinheiro and Branisha Nair, F.Y. B.Sc (Agri)

DIWALI - THE FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS

DIWALI IS THE INDIAN FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS CELEBRATED DURING THE

AUTUMN SEASON. THIS FESTIVAL COMES IN HINDU CALENDAR DURING

KARTHIK. THE FESTIVAL IS CELEBRATED OVER THE PERIOD OF SEVERAL

DAYS, WHICH STARTS WITH NARAK CHATURDASHI WHICH IS BURNING OF

EVIL & GETTING VICTORY OVER THE EVIL, FOLLOWED BY SECOND DAY

WHICH IS CELEBRATED ENTHUSIASTICALLY AS THE FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS

(DIWALI), NEXT DAY IS LAXMI PUJAN AND THEN DIWALI PADWA. THE

FESTIVE SEASON COMES TO AN END WITH BHAIDOOJ OR BHAU-BIJ WHICH

IS DEDICATED TO THE RELATION BETWEEN BROTHER AND SISTER.

DURING THESE DAYS PEOPLE DECORATE THEIR HOUSES WITH LIGHTS AND

RANGOLI AND DRESS UP IN NEW CLOTHES TO SHOW THE VICTORY OF GOOD

OVER EVIL. PEOPLE VISIT EACH OTHER’S PLACE AND WISH BY DISTRIBUTING

SWEETS.

- GAYATRI GAWAS , F.Y. B.Sc (Agri)

EDITORS – AKSHAY PARAB & DYINRAL CORREIA