Panaji, Jun 27 (IANS): Amid a sharp decline in tourism footfalls, Goa appears to be gearing up to create a new footprint of its own in organic farming.

It is not just the absence of tourists which has jolted Goa in the course of the more-than-a-year-long pandemic. With inter-state borders frozen during the early part of the janta curfew last year, the resulting shortage of essential goods like milk, eggs, meat and most importantly agricultural produce, appears to have triggered a push towards farming local organic produce to fill the gap between demand and supply.

Earlier this week, the state agriculture department conducted a review of 500 organic farming clusters spread over 10,000 hectares of land across all the 12 revenue sub-divisions in the state. The review was chaired by the department's Minister Chandrakant Kavlekar.

While the initiative was launched in 2018, the organic farming cluster move picked up steam in the light of the shortage in vegetable, pulses and food grain supplies, following the pandemic.

"We have trained farmers in organic farming practices in all these clusters. The government will not just stop at training. The overall objective is to also assist these farmers in marketing their produce," according to Kavlekar.

The 500 organic farming clusters are manned by over 12,000 registered farmers with small land holdings.

Traditional agriculture in Goa comprises of cultivation of crops like paddy, cashew, coconut and seasonal vegetables and pulses. However escalating real estate prices, high labour cost and farm share-holdings shrinking with every generation has made agriculture, over the years, a less attractive proposition as compared to mining, tourism and employment in the service sector.

But organic farming can turn the economic disadvantage of small farmholdings into a profit making enterprise, Agriculture Director Ulhas Kakode said, adding that farmers could tap into a 50 per cent government subsidy on organic inputs for their crops, if they shun chemical pesticides and fertilisers.

"It is only the first step," he said.

According to Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, traditional Goan crops like coconuts, paddy and cashew nuts can be farmed organically, before adding more items to the list.

The Chief Minister has also said that Goa has the potential to be declared a fully organic state in the near future, while calling for integrated organic farming methods.

"There will be a demand for vermi-culture. Farmers will have to provide the material needed for organic fertiliser. If we do agriculture and dairy farming in an integrated manner, farmers will benefit," Sawant said.

Over the last few years, isolated agricultural and horticultural innovations by individual farmers has seen planting and harvesting of crops including strawberries, which are a rarity in Goa, but the government aims to streamline and popularise organic farming culture in the state, with efforts like setting up an organic farming university.

According to the Agriculture Minister, such a university could help turn the neglected sector around as well as tap fallow patches of agricultural land for productive use.

"It will also give a new direction to the youth," Kavlekar said.