TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Over the last 50 years, though the amount of land under cultivation has reduced, the introduction of new technologies has led to a considerable rise in the overall yield of crops in the State, said the agriculture department.
Presenting the stats at a recent Goa State Biodiversity Board (GSBB) meeting, agriculture officer Raghunath Joshi said that though a huge area for cultivation has since liberation not being used, the yields of crops that are still being grown has increased, some manifolds.
“Though several hundred hectares has reduced since the liberation, the yield has considerably increased. A high yielding variety and new technology are the reasons for this,” said Joshi who said the trend extended to paddy, pulses, groundnut as well as sugarcane.
A look at the statistics from the year 1960-61 to that of a couple of years ago on the amount of land utilized for cultivating paddy and an interesting trend begins to develop in terms of the area and yield of crops grown in the State.
Statistics show that between 1960- 61, 80,302 hectares was being used to cultivate 79,948 tonnes of paddy. This figure between 2009-10 has reached 1,50,919 tonnes of paddy in 47,104 hectares of cultivable land.
Joshi during his presentation reasoned with the fact that many were leaving the State suggesting a probable reason for this decrease in cultivable land.
“One reason for this decrease in land being used to cultivate crops is because of the mass migration of people to outside the State and country. This creates a shortage of labour. The difference now however is that, there are high yielding varieties of crops that are being used now,” he said.
He also added that khazan lands and mangroves were the areas that deserved more attention. “Khazan lands today are beginning to enter the endangered category because many are taking to pisciculture,” said Joshi.
Currently, only 40 per cent of the total 528 khazan land is being cultivated. Ten years ago, over 50 per cent was being cultivated. Tiswadi registered the largest khazan owning land at 6,704 hectares.
