“Farmer centric” draft policy to have road map for next ten years It will be ready by Republic Day next year: Director of Agriculture
It’s been over ten years now since a draft agricultural policy was prepared for Goa; however, a decade down the line, the policy remained a mere document sans government approval.
After a series of failed attempts from the successive State Agriculture Ministers, Minister Ravi Naik has finally taken a lead to put in place a comprehensive, farmers-friendly and robust policy. Despite Goa being predominantly an agrarian State, the sector has failed to experience growth over the years -- with Goans largely getting dependent on other States to meet their agricultural needs.
Considering the current agricultural scenario, where the sector is consumption driven, the government has laid focus on long term agricultural growth in a bid to make Goa self-sufficient in agricultural produce and also to convert it into a profit making sector.
“With the changing demographics and climatic conditions, farming also needs to undergo a sea change. In this backdrop there is an urgent need for a policy that has a long term vision,” Director of Agriculture Nevil Alphonso said.
The Director of Agriculture said that a “farmer centric” draft Goa State Agriculture policy, with a road map for the next ten years will be ready before the Republic Day, January 26, 2024. He said that with the aim to make the policy more farmer centric and consumer friendly, the government is actively collecting inputs from the stakeholders across the State, based on which a draft would be prepared.
To ensure that no one is left out, the agriculture department had called upon Panchayats to hold special Gram Sabha meetings to incorporate recommendations made during these grassroots discussions. In addition, the department has also organized taluka-level sessions through zonal agricultural officers to consider voices from every corner.
“We have received over 850 suggestions from individuals and farmers groups in the month of July-August. We have also got lot of inputs from farmers during our taluka level meetings. We are also in process of getting information from the panchayats, where Gram Sabha meetings were held. We are very happy the way people have responded to our calls with their suggestions,” Alphonso said.
The Director said that the Minister is very clear that the focus of the policy should be towards the revival of the fallow agriculture land and attract youth towards farming. “We want to make agriculture an employment generating sector,” he said.
The State government is also looking at incorporating the best practices from agriculture policies from other States in Goa State Agriculture Policy.
The Director explained that post public consultation, the data will be submitted to the five-sub committees, who will study the inputs and incorporate into a single vision, which would be placed before the State level committee.
According to ICAR study, there are only 31,000 cultivators and 27,000 agricultural labourers as compared to the total population of 14.58 lakh. Most of the farmers are not fully dependent on agriculture and they have supplementary sources of income through mining related activities, business, private or government jobs and foreign remittances. It is estimated in the 70th round of NSSO that the average income of farmers in Goa is Rs.91,098 of which Rs16,893 is through farming, Rs15,097 is through dairying, Rs 12,243 through non-farm activities and Rs 46,865 through wage labour and salary.
