Support price to only traditional crops in Goa

Panaji, July 28 (UNI) Goa government does not intend to extend support price to crops other than paddy, sugarcane, arecanut and oil plam, Agriculture Minister Francisco Xavier Pascheco told the state Legislative Assembly today.

In reply to Harish N P Zantye's (Cong) question tabled in the House, the Minister said the government proposed to offer Rs one per kg for paddy to the designated cooperative society with a maximum of Rs 4000 per farmer for the year 2006-07.

For sugarcane, the support price offered was Rs 200 per tonne sold to the sugar factory in the year 2005-06 by 1274 farmers. The government had paid Rs 107.87 lakhs for producing locally 53,934 tonnes of sugarcane, he said.

The authorities calculated the support price for arecanut as the difference between the actual price received by the farmers and Rs 85, upto a maximum of Rs 15 per kg sold during the year 2005-06.

The entire quantity of arecanut eligible for support price was fixed at 600 kg or 60 per cent of 600 kg to 1200 kg or 30 per cent above 1200 kg arecanut produced, the minister said.

Productivity linked incentives were offered for oil farmers at Rs one, Rs 1.50 and Rs 2 per kg for increase in yield over the previous year, benefitting 131 farmers for whom Rs 3.34 lakh outlay was provided for the year 2005-06, he added.

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