Agriculture Minister Ravi Naik, on Thursday, stated that the agriculture policy that is before the government for clearance will focus on reviving fallow lands for productive use, besides providing better facilities to farmers. While holding out a promise of “aache din” for farmers, the minister appealed to the people not to sell their fields to outsiders. He also warned that Goa will face the heat of climate change considering the current pace of concretisation.
The agriculture policy is much awaited and carries a lot of hope against the backdrop of a decline in agriculture activity with the appetite for farming clearly on the decline. The stark realities that farmers face today cannot be ignored, and neither can we ignore the fact that farmlands have been either neglected or kept fallow because farming has not been a profitable proposition.
The call to retain farmlands is in line with the Goa Restrictions on Transfer of Agricultural Land Act, 2023, notified last April. The question, however, is whether mere legislation can help increase cultivation. Certainly not. Over the past decade, the State has seen a gradual decline in paddy cultivation despite the many sops offered to farmers. The consistent effort of the government is visible in terms of schemes, subsidies and even “assured minimum price” for crops. However, cultivation has not been correspondingly encouraging. So is the case with cashew cultivation which has seen a 50 per cent drop in production this year, the third consecutive year that the State has recorded a dip. The gradual decline is dealing a body blow to the concept of Swyampurna Goa and self-sufficiency appears to be a distant dream.
At the heart of the slide are issues that have not been addressed over some time. Modern farming techniques, irrigation facilities, high-yielding and quality seeds, and above all timely financial assistance and compensation in times of crop loss have failed to get results.
On the flip side, are developments that act against the spirit of farming, like the amendment to the Goa Tenancy Agricultural Act which allows the government to acquire fallow agricultural land for public projects. The amendment has been put to use and in several villages, agricultural land has been buried to build projects, the recent case was the panchayat office in Wadi-Talaulim. People are taking cudgels with elected representatives and ministers because agrarian lands are being rampantly converted under the guise of development.
While the youth are turning away from agriculture, all eyes will be on the policy and whether it could trigger a reversal. The State is largely responsible for the decline because successive ministers failed to understand the underlying sentiment of the sector. Lip service has been paid to agriculture over the years, and a few years back farmers were made to run from pillar to post to claim compensation for their crop losses.
As the new agriculture policy is set to be unveiled, the government must step up and set an example by prioritising farming. We have reached a stage where community farming has faded away. It’s going to be challenging to get more people into agriculture given the roller-coaster trail of failures and insecurities. Nonetheless, a start has to be made. Start by showing genuine interest in protecting agricultural land and upholding it over everything else. True intent starts here.
