MARGAO: While launching the Farmers Forward scheme in Fatorda constituency on Sunday, Agriculture Minister Vijai Sardessai repeated his dream of making Fatorda a model town reflecting the ethos of Goa and said his success would be when all the fields by the road side are cultivated and look green as envisaged by Bakibab in his poem.
Farmers Forward is a philosophy he said which will be notified on June 14 after the code of conduct is over and said agriculture ministry is a real challenge in Goa and that he asked for it because Goenkarponn is in agriculture and he wanted to take Goem, Goenkar and Goenkarponn forward.
He said all fields in Fatorda including those that are not cultivated will be ploughed and disclosed plans to hire people on contract basis in the agriculture department who will go to farmers to understand their problems and also to take the 80 different schemes for farmers to them.
“Today Goans prefer to work as an attendant in a petrol pump in the UK and we have to prove to them that agriculture alone will give you more revenue than what you are earning in UK,” he said stressing that Farmers Forward is also an attempt to cut down migration.
While stating that laws will have to be amended to permit contract farming in Goa he also stressed the need for collective farming and said the department will help such endeavours as land in Goa is fragmented and many farmers do not have clear titles to the land they are cultivating.
Recalling his vegetarian sister’s death due to cancer, he said Goa needs to go organic and prove to the people that it can be done so that organic produce can get higher price. He also suggested setting up a floriculture park in Goa on the lines of IT hub and further spoke about the need to have a environment cloud having all the data about agricultural produce in every part of Goa.
Vijai said that within the next six months drive in markets for local farmers will be set up on the roadside so enable them to sell their produce and also disclosed plans to introduce integrated farming in government acquired land specially in Fatorda constituency.
Repeating his suggestion to set up a separate municipal council for Fatorda, he said he wanted to make that a model town reflecting the Goan identity and said that he was determined to ensure that in Fatorda only local vegetables and fruits will be sold while the imported apples and other fruits will be sold on in the SGPDA market.
He launched the scheme for transplanting in Fatorda constituency whereby Rs. 18000 subsidy will be given to a farmer using the machine to transplant paddy on one hectare of land.
Responding to Margao Municipal Council chairperson’s suggestion to introduce home gardening in apartments, he said the scheme will be launched for the kharif season involving school students while in the rabi season it will be launched to those living in apartments.
Speaking earlier Tito Cardoso highlighted some of the problems faced by farmers.
