PANAJI: ICAR-Central Coastal Agricultural Research Institute (CCARI), Goa and Association for Coastal Agricultural Research (ACAR) organised the “One day State level workshop on Kulagar” on 26th May, 2022 for farmers and Kulagar stakeholders under Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.
Narendra Sawaikar, Chairman, Goa Bagayatdar Sahakari Society, Ponda; was the chief guest for the workshop. Dr. Milind R Bhirud, General Manager, NABARD, Goa, Nevil Alphonso, Director, Directorate of Agriculture, Goa; R. Ganesh, Assistant General Manager, Canara Bank, Goa; and Sachin Gharat, Chief Manager, Sales & Business Development, State Bank of India, Goa; were the guests of honour.
In his address, Sawaikar briefed about the various aspects of Kulagar in the coastal ecosystem. He appreciated the efforts of ICAR-CCARI, Goa in organising the workshop on Kulagar. He further stated that this workshop will act as a knowledge platform and also recommendations from this workshop will be a way forward for sustainable planning and management of Kulagar in the Konkan region, thereby benefitting farmers, scientists and other stakeholders. He emphasised that there should be a separate system in the Institute to address the grievances and also seek suggestions on Kulagar at ICAR-CCARI, Goa.
Dr. Parveen Kumar, Director, ICAR-CCARI, Goa; welcomed all the dignitaries and delegates of the workshop. In his welcome address, he briefed about the scenario of Kulagar in the coastal area and gave the gist about the different components such as beekeeping, mushroom cultivation, recycling of outputs, value addition and many more to be incorporated in the existing Kulagar for the sustainability, productivity and profitability of Kulagar system.
Nevil Alphonso encouraged the farmers to practice the age-old, traditional and time tested Kulagar farming. Also, he mentioned about the subsidies available to the farmers through the Directorate of Agriculture, Goa.
Dr. Milind R Bhirud emphasised the subsidies and other facilities available to the farmers through different banks and the role of NABARD in the development of agricultural and rural areas.
R. Ganesh briefed the farmers about the role of the public banking sector in agricultural development and nation building. Sachin Gharat educated the farmers about role of SBI Bank in relation to credit KCC, Krishi Card and other schemes related to agriculture development.
In the afternoon session, various lectures were delivered by different experts on various aspects of Kulagar management. The workshop was attended by around 200 participants which included farmers from different parts of Goa, officials from agricultural departments, banking, Zuari farm hubs limited, Jain irrigation, KVB green energies and other stakeholders of Kulagar.
Dr. N. P. Singh, Emeritus Scientist, ICAR-CCARI, Goa and Organising Secretary of the workshop, highlighted the different problems like lack of planting materials, wild animals, water shortage and lack of linkages between different stakeholders etc faced by the Kulagar farmers. He further emphasised that all the stakeholders should work together and there is a need to form FPOs which will help in increasing the Kulagar farm income. Dr. A. R. Desai, Principal Scientist (Horticulture), ICAR-CCARI, Goa proposed the vote of thanks and Dr. Mathala J. Gupta, Senior Scientist, (AS&PE) compered the programme held at Old Goa.
