Govt aims to attract 400 youth towards farming by Sept: CM

Panaji: Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has given a target to the agriculture officers to create 400 new young farmers in the state by September 2020.

Addressing the agriculture officers at the workshop on preparation of Agro vision document for the state of Goa, Sawant also appealed to the agriculture officers to ensure that the young farmers, who are interested in taking up farming as a business, will get at least annual income of Rs 3 lakh.

“Peons working in government departments are getting an annual salary of Rs 3 lakh. So if we want to motivate youth to take up farming then it is a responsibility of the agriculture officers of the department to ensure that they will get at least Rs 3 lakh annual income from agriculture. If we are able to ensure minimum income of Rs 3 lakh then only youth will come forward to take up farming as a career,” he said.

The Chief Minister said that all 80 agriculture officers working in the department must prepare a list by identifying 50 each such youth who are willing to take up farming.

He has given a target to the agriculture officers to identify such youth by September 2020, adding, “All zonal agriculture officers and other officers from the department must go to the fields and work as consultants.”

The Chief Minister further said that everybody must work towards taking agriculture industry to top position in the state.