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Local veggies production is on rise says Goa Horticulture Department

The major supply of vegetables into the state invariably comes from Belgaum, in fact Goa is entirely dependent on Belgaum for the procurement of their
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The major supply of vegetables into the state invariably comes from Belgaum, in fact Goa is entirely dependent on Belgaum for the procurement of their daily need of vegetables. But slowly this scenario is changing, according to the sources from Goa State Horticulture Department Goa has slowly started expanding its base in horticulture cultivation. Though the state still has dependency on Belgaum market for their daily vegetable needs but the quantum of procurement has gone down. The credit of this change obviously goes to the Horticulture Corporation of Goa and their efforts for encouraging the local farmers to take up the vegetable farming as one of the profitable business.

Although the Goa’s daily need of vegetables is estimated to be around 300 tons but according to the sources in the last financial year the corporation has procured about 200 tones of locally grown vegetables which itself is tenfold rise in production compared to last five years which used to be around 24 tons a year.  Although it is difficult to estimate the exact figure of the production in Goa but corporation thinks that it could be more than 500 tons, as many farmers sell their produce directly to the consumers. Last year the horticulture department had even exported around 14 tons of Goan grown green chilies to Belgaum market.

The Managing Director of Goa Horticulture Department Larry Barretto has given the entire credits to the efforts of the corporation which encouraged the Goan farmers to cultivate the vegetables locally. The Goa Horticulture Corporation has informed that they will provide the financial help of Rs. 40,000 per Hectar which is given to the farmers for fencing work, construction of well in the field and purchase of Pump while corporation also make the arrangement to supply the seeds to the farmers at subsidized rates.

Goa have the scope to cultivate good quality chilies and onions and at the moment the farmers are busy cultivating vegetables like bottle gourd, cluster beans, chilies, cucumbers, brinjals, lady fingers, tomatoes and leafy vegetables etc has gone up in the last two-three years. The corporation claimed that local farmers do not sell the some of the vegetables such as Brinjals and Cucumbers to the corporation due to the want of good rates as they make more money by selling them on their own direct to the customers. According to them the Birnjals from Aggasaim being sold at Rs. 50 – 60 per piece which corporation cannot able to offer them.

The import of vegetables from Belgaum is on rise when local production is not upto the mark but when the locally grown vegetables are available in abundance the state corporation do not buy the vegetables from Belgaum MD of the corporation mentioned.

The chilies need fewer downpours to cultivate and hence it can be either grown in post monsoon or in the moorland regions during the monsoon. According to the information provided by the MD of the corporation the new hybrid verity of green chilies called “Nisha” were introduced by the corporation and the farmers were trained to cultivate it. Special trays were given to them to do the seeding and the sapling after certain period was needed to be planted elsewhere to grow. This effort pushed the farmer to grow more green chilies in the state which resulted into the production of 14 tones of green chilies last year. Earlier the local farmers were expert in cultivating only red chilies.

Farmers initially found it difficult to adopt a new method of cultivation of chilies but picked it up subsequently. A green chilli plant grows up to a height of about 2.5 to 3 feet and gives an yield of 3 to 4kg. The plant matures in about 135 days.  Encouraged with the response of farmers, the corporation has been experimenting with new varieties of green chilies, as it intends to introduce more pungent chilies. According to Mr. Barreto “Nisha” is not very spicy while the market demands more spice in chilies and hence we need to have more varieties.

The corporation is providing the full support to the Goan farmers and now it is their turn to come ahead and take the advantage of the available facilities. In Goa not many people adopt to farming business on the commercial scale due to need of lots of hard work and manpower which Goa does lack of, besides most of the land being converted into the concrete jungle to make more money. But now it’s time to rise up and take the business of farming seriously and grow some vegetables in the state to make our state self contained and rich in resources. Please do not forget to leave your comments and suggestions on this issue.

Source: TNN

Edited by: Goa Prism News Desk         

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