CANACONA, JULY 24
A market yard for locally grown vegetables and fruits in Canacona will be set up before the forthcoming Ganesh Chathurti festival, which will be used as an outlet for farmers and a collection centre for the department.
This was announced at a Kirshi Melava, attended by a large number of farmers, at the Gaondongrim panchayat hall.
The agriculture department will form a committee to ensure the commencement of this market outlet-cum-collection yard at Canacona and will make payments on weekly basis to farmers who provide products through this collection centre (yard).
While attending to grievances of farmers, Agriculture minister Vishwajeet Rane assured farmers, affected by the floods in October 2009, that their destroyed field pumps would be replaced before Ganesh Chathurthi.
The agriculture department will finalize a dealer who will be asked to directly provide a pump set to those affected farmers.
It is learnt that around 190 farmers, mostly from Gaondongrim and Khotigao, have claimed destruction of their pump sets installed in their respective fields, during the October 2 floods, which had devastated the taluka.
The government had earlier asked farmers to either repair or purchase a new pump set in place of the destroyed one and to submit bills to the department for reimbursement.
Departmental sources have claimed that except for one or two farmers, others have not submitted the bills for reimbursement.
The government will also provide 2,500 metres of electricity fencing for cultivable fields, from the present 500 metres, to provide protection from wild animals.
Poinguinim MLA Ramesh Tawadkar, Khola ZP Krishna Velip and Poinguinim ZP Daya Pagui were present and spoke on the occasion.
Earlier, a power-point presentation was shown on various government schemes for farmers, which if availed, could help increase production and profit.
Others who spoke on the occasion included Director of Agriculture S Tendulkar and Canacona Zonal Agriculture Officer Rajesh Dessai.
Sarpanchas Vishant Gaonkar (Gaondongrim), Rajesh Gaonkar (Khotigao), Tejaswini Daykar (Poinguinim) and Pranali Prabhugaonkar (Loliem-Polem) were also present on the occasion.
