Salcette ZAO Sheriff Furtado while distributing free pesticides to farmers in the presence of Velsao Sarpanch Diana Gouveia, PTXA President Roquezinho D’Souza and others.
Photo Credits: Vikram Nayak
VASCO
Salcette Zonal Agriculture Officer (ZAO) Sheriff Furtado on Saturday announced that the long pending demand of farmers to have a dedicated ZAO for Mormugao taluka will soon be fulfilled with a new office opening up in Cortalim.
Sheriff was addressing a large gathering of farmers at an awareness camp organised by the ZAO in association with Velsao Panchayat and Pale Tolem Xetkar Association ( PTXA ) where a lot of agricultural schemes and subsidies were explained to farmers .
Furtado said that ZAO had the awareness camp in Velsao at the request of the Velsao Sarpanch Diana Gouveia and PTXA President Roquezinho D’Souza.
“There was a long pending demand to have a dedicated ZAO for Mormugao taluka who had to travel all the way to Margao and the good news is that a new office is being set up in Cortalim. Once the office is set up, We will having regular awareness camps and send one staff to the panchayat atleast once a fortnight to take care of application forms and formalities for the subsidies,” said Furtado.
“We have senistised the framers on the importance of having a Krishi Card and explained other details related to farming activites. There are more than 60 different and unique schemes and subsidies of upto 75 percent on General category and 90 percent on SC/ST category . Irrigation infrastructure is one of the major aspect for the success of farming activity and there are many schemes where part of funds are coming from the central government. We thought of popularising this schemes and even giving free pesticides so as to motivate the people into farming and agriculture,” said Furtado
PTXA President Roquezinho D’Souza said the camp was a success helping the farmers with lot of knowledge
“Velsao is a farmers village with greenery all over and on either sides of the road. We have farmers ranging from youth to senior citizens and we have also received great support of free machineries at all times through the Cortalim Farmers club headed by Cortalim MLA Anton Vas. I thank the ZAO to help the farmers with the schemes and urge the farmers to continue to indulge in farming activity,” Said D’Souza
“We are thankful to our MLA Anton Vas who took our request for the dedicated ZAO for Mormugao Taluka with the CM Dr Pramod Sawant who immediately approved our demand and got a new office to Cortalim. The new ZAO will definitely benefit the farmers of Mormugao Taluka and save their travel time of going to Margao for their needs,” added D’Souza
Velsao Sarpanch Diana Gouveia said that awareness camps were essential so that people can avail the benefits of various central and state Government schemes
“The camp was for farmers and despite the festival in the village, a lot of people have attended the camp. I want more people to come especially since Velsao is a farming village. We had sent letters to people this time but we will make announcements one day prior to these camps so that more people can take benefits,” said Gouveia.
