Team Goemkarponn
Panaji: Chief Minister Dr. Pramod Sawant on Friday informed the Assembly that the state government is providing various subsidies to boost the agriculture and horticulture sectors in Goa, with an emphasis on mechanisation, manual paddy transplantation, and promotion of local crops like the Mankurad mango.
Highlighting increased financial assistance to farmers, the Chief Minister said the number of Kisan Credit Cards issued has doubled, giving farmers easier access to credit.
He also noted that payments to farmers have steadily increased, particularly in the horticulture sector, which is witnessing higher participation from Goans due to its profitability.
Dr. Sawant encouraged farmers to take up cultivation of the indigenous Mankurad mango, revealing that the government offers subsidies of ₹2 lakh per hectare for cultivation on rocky land and ₹60,000 per hectare on normal land. He further announced that the process of securing a Geographical Indication (GI) tag for the Mancurad mango is in its final stage.
On the matter of paddy cultivation, the Chief Minister said that while mechanised harvesting is currently subsidised, the government will now consider subsidies for manual paddy transplantation under the New Agriculture Policy.
Guidelines will soon be drafted for the same, and the use of MNREGA workers in this area may also be explored.
Responding to concerns raised by MLA Kedar Naik regarding the current harvesting machine time of 1.18 hours per hectare, Agriculture Minister Ravi Naik assured that this would be extended to 1.30 hours and additional subsidies for crop cultivation would also be made available.
