PANAJI : The state government is in the process of formulation of a comprehensive state agriculture policy, which proposes to conserve and protect various local varieties of vegetables.
Minister for Agriculture, Ramesh Tawadkar coming out with a written reply in the recently concluded monsoon session of the state legislative assembly said the proposed policy will include conservation and protection of all local varieties of vegetables in the state such as red amaranthus, brinjal (Agassaim), chilli (Khola, Aldona, Tarvati), cucumber, bitter gourd, pumpkin, ash gourd, ridge gourd, little gourd (Tendli), snake gourd (padwal), onion reddish, cluster bean, bhendi (seven ridges), dum stick, root and tuber crops such as Elephant’s Foot Yam, Colocasia, Diascorea, etc.
The House was also informed that the government is conducting a survey under the project
“Characterisation and mapping of land resources of Goa in reference to cultivated and fallow land use systems” and information on area under cultivation will be generated from this survey.
“The report of this project is awaited,” the written information added.
In another written reply, Tawadkar stated that the Sanjivani sugar factory is going into losses due to the non-availability of sufficient quantities of sugarcane for crushing, the main reason for which is not lack of irrigation facilities, but absence of local labourers.
“As local labourers are not easily available for harvesting of sugarcane, there is shortage of harvesting labour force, and the sugar factory is paying advance to the local farmers to encourage them to bring harvesting labour force from outside the state,” the reply said, mentioning that as informed by the Registrar of Co-operative Societies, the factory is also planning to bring harvesting labour force from Maharashtra subject to availability.
“Presently there is no suitable harvesting machine suited to local conditions in Goa,” Tawadkar maintained, noting that however, if any small cane harvester is available in any neighbouring state then the factory will hire the same for harvesting in the future.
Tawadkar also stated through another written reply that the total annual production of the coconut in the state is on the rise since 2012.
“The state witnessed production of 122.72 million nuts in the year 2012-13, which then went up to 128.15 million nuts in 2013-14,” it revealed, pointing out that in the year 2014-15, Goa produced 127.77 million nuts, and during the year 2015-16, this production was 129.35 million nuts.
“These coconuts however, are not exported to foreign countries,” the Minister for Agriculture stated, maintaining that the government is also implementing various schemes to increase the production of coconut in the state, such as those related to fencing, irrigation infrastructure and micro irrigation, giving subsidy on organic inputs, plant protection chemicals, and so on.