The Valpoi Zonal Agricultural Office building is in a dilapidated condition for the last many years. The structure has developed cracks at several places which in turn has caused leakage problems. During monsoon, water is reported to have entered the premises and on account of this, some plastered portions have collapsed. To make matters worse, the windows of building have been broken and farmers of the taluka have demanded that the Government construct a new building.
The ZAO office is also faced with another problem and that is shortage of tractors. The area is vast and there are only two tractors available. Earlier, there were in all six tractors, of these four tractors were very old and the same had to be auctioned. Farmers have been demanding more tractors as they are left only with a few.The ZAO official had already submitted the proposal for new building with the estimate of Rs 1.25 crore and proposal file has been pending in the office of the soil conversion division, Bicholim for the last two years. There are total of 3581 farmers in Sattari who are registered with the ZAO through Krishi Card. The registered farmers are engaged in rice, cashew nuts, areca nut, banana, coconut, vegetable farming.
This year, late rains did not have much effect on the farmers but the wild animals played havoc in the taluka destroying the rice crops on a huge scale. This year, the zonal office received many complaints from the farmers in this regard, zonal officials informed.
“In past 5 years, many farmers have witnessed an upward trend. Many youth are taking to agriculture and the traditional farmers have started using modern technology like power tillers, weed cutters, grass cutters, crushing machines, solar fencing etc. And this integrated approach will help in increasing the farmers income in the state,” says Yashwant Gawas, Assistant Agriculture Officer.
Shahaji Desai, a farmer says, “The ZAO building should be reconstructed with good infrastructure and agriculture officer should guide the farmers on spice plantations.”
“We demand that Government construct a new ZAO building in our taluka. Besides this, government too has to conduct soil testing in state. Cashew is the main crop in Sattari, so there is an urgent need for a research centre at Valpoi office,” says another farmer Shivaji Gaonkar.
“Our agriculture office building is in a very bad shape and can collapse at any given point of time. So we demand that the Government construct a modern building,” says Sameer Govekar, another farmer.
