Chief minister Pramod Sawant has recently announced the roadmap to make Goa Self-sufficient in the agriculture and allied sectors. Sawant said that state government departments would work in coordination with the ICAR-CCARI and other central government institutions. The chief minister was speaking at a press conference held at ICAR-CCARI, Old Goa. Deputy chief minister and agriculture minister Chandrakant Kavalekar, ICAR-CCARI director Eknath Chakurkar were also present.
The chief minister conducted a series of meetings with ICAR-CCARI and state government officials to prepare a roadmap for executing strategies for improving production, productivity, value chain, mechanization in agriculture, animal husbandry, and fisheries sector of Goa State. The proposed action plan for Goa state includes mainly productivity improvement in major crops like paddy, cashew, and coconut, diversification in agriculture, creation of integrated farming system models, mechanization, value addition, and policy reforms in the agriculture sector.
The objective of these meetings is to make Goa self-sufficient, create a brand of ‘Goa’ on the global platform. By implementing all central Government schemes, the Government will achieve the target of doubling the farmer’s income by 2022, he said.
To create a ‘Goan Brand’ of local products, the Government has planned to set up organic farming clusters and start 12 Farmer Producer Organizations state-wide, informed the chief minister. Micro Irrigation Scheme will be developed under PM-Kisan Yojana. ‘Integrated Farming’ will double the income of farmers. This will attract more youth towards agriculture and allied sectors, said Sawant.
The first state-level coordination committee meeting for doubling the farmer’s income by 2022 was conducted on 23 March 2017 at ICAR-CCARI, Goa. It is estimated in the 70th round of NSSO that the average income of farmers in Goa is Rs 91,098, of which Rs 16,893 is through farming, Rs 15,097 is through is dairying, Rs 12,243 through non-farm activities, and Rs 46,865 through wage labor and salary.
