the goan I network
PANAJI
Nearly 3.6 per cent of Goa’s total agricultural land surface area, which amounts to nearly 13,193 hectares is lying fallow, a survey conducted for the State government by an agency of the ICAR has revealed.
The survey conducted by the Nagpur-based ICAR-National bureau of soil survey and land use planning was released by the government on Tuesday which shows around 4,639 hectares is left un-cultivated for one or less than one agricultural year.
Another 4621 hectares of ‘cultivable waste land’ is recorded in the survey as land once used for cultivation but left fallow for five years.
The total fallow cultivable land in Goa is nearly one-third of the gross area under rice cultivation and 122 per cent of the area under other cereals, pulses and other oil seed crops.
Meanwhile the ICAR-National bureau of soil survey and land use planning has also prepared a database of land resources in the state which includes extent, distribution and characterisation of soil.
The report says that there is three times more fallow land in north Goa (9,638 hectares) as against 3,510 hectares in South Goa.
The Tiswadi taluka has the most amount of land uncultivated with 3,669 hectares fallow and the remote taluka of Sattari has the least - 77 hectares.
In Bardez around 1,459 hectares is currently fallow for about one year.
The Agriculture department is planning to bring nearly 30 per cent of the fallow lands under cultivation within a year and is banking on the community farming mode.
Total 30 series are identified and mapped into 171 soil mapping units.
The soil maps are prepared at the panchayat level.
The database which is on a 1:10000 scale will be made available through different apps like mobile LRIS goa and Bhoomi-Geoportal.
This data will be helpful for farmers and also planners, executers and administrators.
