Farm House owners, farmers want ‘Coconut Museum’; support the bill
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 02 March 2016 21:32 IST
Not if the small coconut growers, quite a few Farm House owners have now come forward to support Bharatiya Janata Party’s move to amend the controversial ‘coconut bill’.
In fact, besides declaring coconut as the state tree, they have urged Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar to set up a ‘Coconut Museum’ in Goa.
Possibly the Goa Coconut Farmers’ Association is the first delegation who met Governor Mridula Sinha with a demand to give her assent to the controversial bill.
The delegation, headed by Association chairman Subhash Prabhudesai - having a ‘Kullagar’ in Rivona, included three ‘influential’ farmers – builder Pravas Naik owning ‘Nanu Farm’ in Rivona, builder Datta Damodar Naik owning ‘Sangodd Farm’ in Mollem and Betalbatim ‘Bhakar’ Dinar Barros.
A very interesting point the delegation pointed out: Government of India gives subsidy of Rs 1000 to cut diseased and unproductive coconut tree, provided a new coconut tree is planted in its place.
“Coconut farmers were finding it very cumbersome to go through all the formalities when the coconut tree was classified as a Forest Tree. Exclusion of Coconut Tree from the list of Forest Trees will help productivity of coconut plantations and thereby the yield of coconuts will go up”, they stated in the memorandum.
Having around 20 farmers mobilised under its banner, the Association told the Governor as well as the CM that the Preservation of Trees Act was making it difficult to cut more than five coconut trees if the farmer did not possess the Krishi Card.
The Association also met agriculture minister Ramesh Tawadkar, demanding increase in support price from Rs 8 to Rs 15 per nut and passing of Contract Farming legislation.
