PANAJI
The Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has kept the much-awaited and long pending ‘Goa State Amritkal Agriculture Policy 2024’ on the backburner, with policy awaiting cabinet approval for more than 10-months now since it was submitted to the government.
The policy document, comprising 150 pages, was submitted to the government on March 7, 2024. Highly placed sources confirmed that the policy document is with the Chief Minister.
“The Chief Minister has not raised any objection to the policy nor there any other financial issues. The policy is also vetted by the law department. However, the policy has not been placed before cabinet till date,” sources confirmed.
Despite attempts, the Chief Minister remained unavailable for the comments.
According to the government, the Goa State Agriculture Policy or the Goa State Amritkal Agriculture Policy, 2024, is a strategic initiative aligning with the vision of Amritkal, aiming towards India’s centenary of Independence in 2047.
The State government had in May 2023 constituted the committee to draft the State Agriculture policy. A total of over 3751 suggestions from individuals, farmers groups, village panchayats and other stakeholders were received for the policy at the drafting stage.
Based on the suggestions, the Committee had identified focused areas like agriculture and horticulture development, integrated farming, land, soil and watershed development, khazan land, fertilizer, nutrient, pesticide and pest management, agro tourism, organic and natural farming, agriculture export, storage and warehousing, climate and environment, agriculture in school curriculum and research.
Sources said that following cabinet approval, policy would be notified in the official state gazette, becoming a public document available in Konkani and Marathi.
