Goa’s ‘self-reliant’ move puts Karnataka farmers, traders in worry

“About 50 trucks from Belagavi, Chikkodi, Sankeshwar, Gokak and Ghataprabha from Belagavi district supply about 12 to 15 tonnes of vegetables daily to Goa. About 120 traders in Belagavi district supply vegetables to 1,300 agents in Goa, which has a daily turnover of around ₹ 5 crore,” Satish Patil, a wholesale vegetable vendor attached to the government agricultural produce market committee (APMC) in Kangrali BK said.

The Goa government’s recent move to grow their vegetables and meet other food requirements has left the farmers, meat traders and other growers in several Karnataka districts worried.

Goa’s move to grow vegetables and meet other requirements has left the farmers, traders in several Karnataka districts worried. (Bloomberg)

A significant chunk of farmers and meat and milk traders in the northern districts of Karnataka rely solely on Goa as a market for their produce.

“About 50 trucks from Belagavi, Chikkodi, Sankeshwar, Gokak and Ghataprabha from Belagavi district supply about 12 to 15 tonnes of vegetables daily to Goa. About 120 traders in Belagavi district supply vegetables to 1,300 agents in Goa, which has a daily turnover of around ₹ 5 crore,” Satish Patil, a wholesale vegetable vendor attached to the government agricultural produce market committee (APMC) in Kangrali BK said.

According to official estimates, Goa procures around 750 tonnes of vegetable, 10 quintals of meat, and 100 kg of flowers that comes daily from several districts and, in some cases, as far as Davangere in central Karnataka. Estimates also show that over 300,000 litres of milk and over 1000 kgs of pork are also supplied to Goa daily.

Last week Goa chief minister Pramod Savant emphasised the need to increase the local production of vegetables and fruits to become more “self-reliant”.

“If we increase local vegetable production, the horticulture corporation will give a good rate. In a few days, the corporation will stop importing vegetables from other states and procure locally-produced vegetables,” he had said.

Belagavi Taluk Harisu Sene’s Appasaheb Desai said, “Hundreds of farmers in Belagavi who grow vegetables may land in trouble if Goa stops getting horticultural produce from the state.” “The vegetables are harvested in small intervals and are known as money crops as the farmers get cash immediately if taken to APMCs or market. They will suffer without that,” he said.

Farmer Shankargouda Patil, who has an agricultural field in Bailhongal taluk, said he has been exporting quintals of vegetable daily to Belagavi APMC and a private wholesale dealer who transport them to Goa. “The entire economic system in Belagavi, Bailhongal, Gokak and Savadatti taluks will be hit badly if the vegetable trade to Goa is stopped,” he said. “Many in Bailhongal taluk have purchased more land to grow vegetables. They will suffer a huge loss,” Patil said.

In 2019, Goa had raised apprehensions after the state government had proposed to bring in the anti-cattle slaughter bill in Karnataka that materialised in 2021.

Earlier, beef from Karnataka used to be exported to neighbouring Kerala and Goa among other places and the ban resulted in an acute shortage in these states. However, slaughterhouses in northern districts continued their operations to sell meat to Goa.

Karnataka exported around $2.5 million worth of beef in 2019-20 to UAE, Qatar and other countries, according to government data. Leather exports from Karnataka account for around $8.25 million, Hindustan Times had earlier reported.

However, not all are worried about the recent developments as a similar experiment was carried out in Goa over a decade ago and remained unsuccessful.

At that time, the Goa government had announced attractive remunerations, including good subsidies and loans to its farmers, but the project failed due to multiple factors as the crop did not meet standards, which they procured from across the state border. “Goans themselves preferred the produce procured from Karnataka,” a person in the know of the developments said.

“Belagavi city is just over 100km from Goa, and several people used to travel this distance with their families, stay the night and return with weekly supplies of vegetables and other produce on their own,” said the person cited above.

“Though the seeds cultivated in Goa were from Karnataka, mainly from Belagavi, the yield did not match the quality and taste that was grown in our soil. The groundwater and weather are some of the other reasons as the climate in Goa are not conducive for horticulture crops,” an official from Karnataka’s horticulture department said, requesting anonymity.