Navhind Times | 6 days ago | 10-05-2022 | 02:26 am
Ponda: Emphasising on the need for Goa to become a self-reliant state, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Monday said he was not happy with the quality of vegetables supplied by the other states and urged people to take up vegetable cultivation for a better yield and profits.“Government spends around `20 crore on subsidy for procuring vegetables from other states and you all know what type of vegetables we get. I don’t want to speak about the quality of vegetables we get. If I speak, the newspapers will publish it,” Sawant said adding that if farmers in the state can produce these vegetables, the `20 crore subsidy can be availed by them.The Chief Minister said this during a state-level livelihood mission programme ‘Stree Shakti’held in Ponda.He said Goa is importing most of the commodities like fruits, vegetables, food grains and flowers and is hence dependent on the other states. “Unless and until we try to produce these things here, our state will not become self-reliant,” Sawant said urging farmers to venture into farming, especially vegetable cultivation, which, he said, has a huge demand and involves profit too.He said the government has set a target of making 1 lakh people self-reliant in the state in five years. “We will be able to achieve this if the self-help groups and village organisations take active part in the initiative,” Sawant said.At the event held, the Rural Development Agency disbursed around `2.30 crore to women entrepreneurs from self-help groups and village organisations to support them financially. Rural Development Agency Minister Govind Gaude, project director Meena Goltekar and other officials of the department were present during the programme.The Chief Minister assured women to provide rent-free premises in the Handicraft Department mall proposed at Patto in Panaji where he said the women groups can display and sell their products. Project work has already commenced at an estimated cost of `16 crore, he said.
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