The State Amritkal Agricultural Policy must be implemented at the earliest (EDITORIAL)
The ICAR-Central Coastal Agricultural Research Institute (CCARI), Goa, has been conferred the Rashtriya Krishi Vigyan Puraskar 2025, the highest national honour in agricultural sciences, by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, in recognition of its exceptional contribution in the category of Outstanding Inter-Disciplinary Team Research in Agriculture, Agricultural Education, Extension and Allied Sciences.
The award-winning concept of ‘Building Coastal Climate Resilience through Integrated Farming Systems and Agro-Ecotourism’ was a result of collaborative efforts led by Dr Parveen Kumar (director, ICAR-CCARI) and five other senior scientists. Their research led to the development of salt-tolerant rice varieties, integrated farming system models, and digital platforms such as the Coastal Agricultural Information System (CAIS). A landmark outcome of this work is India’s first ICAR-certified agro-ecotourism model, which blends natural farming with tourism, education, and entrepreneurship. The model is designed to boost rural livelihoods and spread awareness of sustainable agricultural practices among visitors.
Besides ICAR-CCARI’s support in boosting agriculture, the state has recently come out with an exhaustive Goa State Amritkal Agricultural Policy 2025, aimed at transforming Goa’s agricultural sector into a modern, sustainable, and inclusive pillar of its economy, ready to meet the challenges of the 21st century while preserving its rich agricultural heritage.
In addition to several provisions for the promotion of agriculture, the policy seeks to ban the conversion of agricultural land, a decision that could be a turning point in preserving agricultural land for posterity. The government must put this into effect. It also rightly focuses on revolutionising agriculture through organic farming, aeroponics, hydroponics, aquaponics, vertical farming, and urban agriculture and promoting cash crops such as mango and cashew in a big way, as well as exotic fruits like avocado, rambutan, pomelo, grapefruit, etc, for which subsidies will be made available.
Several parts of Goa have experimented with community farming over the past few years. Some have tasted huge success, while a few others have faced a lot of challenges. The government says it provides 90 per cent assistance to community farming groups for creating shared infrastructure. This looks fine on paper. Extra efforts need to be made to turn community farming into a movement. Contract farming could also be explored with proper guarantees to the landowner to overcome the trust deficit. As farmers are at the mercy of climate change, the policy also proposes enacting the New Goa Farmers Welfare Act to provide guaranteed livelihood. To strengthen infrastructure, processing centres, cold storage chains, logistics, and warehousing need to be provided. Agro-tourism is one area that may have huge scope in the state. ICAR has already done pioneering research on it. It is up to the state to make optimum use of the research.
The Swayampurna Goem concept is tied to agriculture. The understanding is that agriculture can make the cultivator self-reliant with the help of government schemes. The farmer must also be open to adopting new techniques and technologies. Armed with the new policy, the government needs to give a strong push to agriculture. Listen to the suggestions that will come from MLAs during the ongoing assembly session. As many see their future in agriculture, the government shouldn’t waste much time and must move towards commercially-linked agriculture. Stop converting paddy fields and promote sustainable agriculture.
