Farmers, their collectives and farm sector entrepreneurs have all welcomed the government's move to begin an exercise to frame an agriculture policy and have chipped in with their inputs, including one seeking representation for farmers on the 'committee' which will draft it.
"Since the Committee for Agriculture Policy for Goa will finalise the draft after considering all suggestions it is but democratic and justified that the farmers themselves be proportionately represented on the committee," said the pre-policy representation made to the department by the recently formed State level body 'Goyche Fudle Pilge Khatir' (GFPK).
GFPK has also suggested that the policy should set short term as well as long-term goals. For the short term, it has suggested mapping of data and cultivation of fallow land on priority. As for long term goals, it has demanded that the State government increase the annual outlay for agriculture in the budget to 4 per-cent. Enforcement of land use restrictions is another long term goal it has suggested.
GFPK also suggested that the Comunidades of Goa which are age old communities who own vast be brought on board in the exercise of agriculture policy.
"Without their say any decision making related to land and agriculture will not be justified. Comunidade representation therefore needs to be considered actively in all committees and decision making matters," it said.
Policy doomed if land-use
policy not in sync
Architect Elsa Fernandes, who heads the Khazan Society of Goa, insists that the policy will be doomed if the State's land-use or utilisation policy has no protection for agriculture.
"Many challenges are faced with pressure from the real estate lobby. A uniform zoning approach is required to be followed by the Town and Country Planning department (TCP) in formulating the Regional Plan (RP) and the Planning Development Authority (PDAs) for the Outline Development Plan (ODP). These final decisions will reinforce the ground reality of the agriculture policy," Fernandes said in a pre-policy input submitted in writing to the Agriculture Department.
Creating a 'khazan' data bank and mapping the land, water bodies, components of Khazans such as notified and un-notified bundhs besides sluice gates, salt pans, paddy fields and internal water bodies (Poims), across the coastal talukas from North and South Goa is another prerequisite for any policy to work, she adds in the letter to the Department.
She said khazan areas being low lying in elevation are susceptible to submergence due to sea level rise and flooding and suggested research activities be encouraged in these matters with students supported for taking up these areas of study.
Fernandes has also suggested that the Agriculture Policy should have a 'khazan management plan' incorporating the traditional knowledge related to khazans including the techniques on bunds making, bund repairing, sluice gates making and repairing, paddy cultivation, village skilled workers, salt tolerant varieties of paddy seeds, bund reinforcement, erosion and breach management, dry stone masonry, water based structures, fish management, fish breeding, prawn nurseries, crop support, crop time table, monsoon predictions, monsoon sub categories, terminologies, tools, sustainability and cultural integration among others.
"We suggest a structure for the policy which should focus on 3 components: Land, Farmer and Crops. Also, the khazan areas should be concentrated into a single exclusive chapter with subsets of all characteristics."
Coconut board
Goa is often described as a land of sun, sand, sea and swaying coconut palms. Yet the coconut tree, which incidentally was defined in the recent past as 'grass' instead of 'tree' by the State government apparently to permit a brewery to hack them in a coconut grove at Sanguem, has never really been paid attention to as one of the mainstays of the State's agri sector.
Now, with the agriculture department opening up a process to draft a five-year policy, coconut growers see hope and have enthusiastically given their inputs including doubling of the minimum support price for coconut.
Sharmila Lopes who runs the Lopes Farms at Sanguem has suggested in a written communique to the department, that the MSP for coconut be raised from the current Rs 15 to Rs 25 with an annual upper limit of Rs 3 lakh.
Similarly, Lopes has suggested an increase in the MSP for raw cashew nuts. And to fund these increases, Lopes has suggested the imposition of a cess on industries which have damaged farm lands -- mining, construction.
GFPK meanwhile claimed that 95% of 'tender coconuts' sold in Goa ar imported from other neighbouring States and has suggested that Goa Coconut Board be established for regulation and managing all issues impacting the coconut farmers and their produce under the Coconut Board of India and with powers to decide support price of coconut, its products and restrict sale of tender coconut from other States.
