PANAJI, 20 October 2021: Round the year availability of traditional Goan products like ‘Mankurad' mango and ready to eat livestock products like Goan sausage, shrimp/duck curry will be a reality soon, ICAR Director Parveen Kumar said recently.

To make Swayampurna Goa Indian Council of Agricultural Research has signed Memorandum of Understanding with Central Potato Research Institute, Shimla to increase vegetable and fodder production.

Kumar informed that at present Goa is importing 320 tons of vegetable per day from neighboring states. After the cultivation of Vegetables and Potato in the state the import will reduce drastically and will make Goa self-reliant in the Agri sector. Five varieties of potato have been recommended for cultivation in the state.

Further he said that in the state, 18,000 acre of ‘Khajan land’ (Saline water) will be used to cultivate various varieties of rice. ICAR is also working on harvesting the crops even in the rainy season and productive utilization of coastal saline soil.

By developing multi-enterprise models for the west and east coast to increase farmers’ income and diversification, ensure regular income besides nutritional security.

To increase farmers’ income farmers have been under training for backyard poultry and ornamental agriculture.

ICAR with the innovative methods reaching out to the farmers. 7,000 farmers have been connected  through WhatsApp groups by ICAR and getting real time information on Weather. Thus farmers are getting additional income of 9 crores in 3 seasons by adoption of the Agro advisory services, Kumar revealed.

Goa Cashew Fenni, Khola chilli and Myndoli Banana developed by ICAR received Geographical Indication (GI) and Goa pork sausage application for GI is under process.