The Goa government has decided to conserve fruits and trees native to the state by promoting the local germ-plasm (seeds) among farmers.
Agriculture Minister Vijai Sardesai told PTI today that his department was distributing the local germ-plasm to farmers for cultivation so that the native varieties of fruits and trees can be preserved.
"When we stopped coconut from being labelled as a grass and instead declared it as the state tree, we should also conserve local varieties of fruits and trees," he said.
The minister was referring to an earlier amendment to the Goa, Daman and Diu (Preservation) of Trees Act by which coconut was reclassified as a tree from its earlier classification as grass.
Sardesai said the state has its own varieties of fruits, like the 'mancurad' mangoes (grown primarily in the Konkan belt), which need to be protected and promoted across the state through plantation drives.
The agriculture department was also distributing seeds of the local varieties of 'adama' (a fruit similar to 'chikoo' or sapodilla), 'jamla' (a local variety of jamun or the blackberry) and guavas to farmers, he said.
"This is being done so that greenery in the state increases and the local germ-plasm further spreads. As a matter of fact, we don't distribute seeds of the 'hapus' variety of mango (which is not native to Goa)," he said.
The minister also said that his department has decided to take up plantations on hills owned by communidades -- the Portuguese-era establishments that are custodian of lands in the state's rural areas.
"On an average, the agriculture department distributes 50,000 trees to farmers annually. This year we have decided to grow these trees on communidade lands. The department will maintain the trees while the communidade or local farmers can enjoy profits by selling the fruits," he said.
The department was going to take up a pilot project of planting cashew trees on communidade lands at Fatorda constituency in South Goa district, he said.
"The agriculture department would facilitate cultivation on hillocks or lands where there are not trees. We will facilitate the plantation as well as the maintenance," Sardesai said.
The department has decided to plant the high yielding 'Vengurla 7' and 'Vengurla 4' cashew tree varieties on communidade lands.
"The yield of these varieties is five times more than the local tree variety," Sardesai added.
The comunidades are a form of land association developed in Goa, where the land-ownership is collectively held, but controlled by the male descendants of those who claimed to be founders of the village.
Documented by the Portuguese as of 1526, it was the predominant form of land-holding in Goa prior to 1961, when the state was liberated from the colonial rule.
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