PANAJI: Director of Agriculture Madhav Kelkar, on behalf of the government received the final report of Agriculture Land Use Planning of Goa State under the project ‘Characterisation and Mapping of Land Resources of Goa in References to Cultivated and Fallow Land Use Systems from the Director (NBSS & LUP), Nagpur-Maharashtra, Government of India, Dr P Chandran at a function organised at the Krishi Bhavan, Tonca-Caranzalem on Wednesday. The function was organized by the ICAR-National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning, Nagpur and the ICAR-Central Coastal Agricultural Research Institute, Goa for the Directorate of Agriculture, Goa. The Goa government in its Budget Assurance in 2013-2014, to conduct the land survey of Fallow Lands in the State of Goa. Accordingly, an memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the Directorate of Agriculture, Government of Goa and the National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning (NBSS & LUP), Nagpur-Maharashtra, Government of India for the project called "Characterisation and Mapping of Land Resources of Goa in References to Cultivated and Fallow Land Use Systems." The Director, NBSS & LUP Nagpur-Maharashtra, Government of India, Dr P Chandran while speaking on the occasion, said that the soil resource database prepared under "Characterisation and Mapping of Land Resources of Goa in References to Cultivated and Fallow Land Use Systems" is very useful and will provide information not only for farmers but also for the planners, executors and administrators. He said based on land resources data the State has been divided into 27 land management units (LMU). Dr Chandran also said that the final report will provide the information of the hectors of fallow lands and present fallow lands are there in the state. It has its relevance not only in terms of agriculture but in terms of other line activities like irrigation, soil conservation, water harvesting, horticulture, forestry, floriculture and landscape developers, he informed. Director of ICAR-CCARI Goa, Dr E Chakurkar in his address said that the crunch of land is increasing day-by-day. So the time has come now to think over how to make best use of available land. He appreciated the initiative of the Goa government for making survey of agriculture use of land in Goa with the intention of better future of agriculture in Goa. The final report will provide insight to the policy makers, planners, administrators and other stakeholders of agricultural sector. Director of Agriculture Madhav Kelkar welcoming the guests said that the aggravated situation which is created in Goan agricultural sector, due to inappropriate land use plan comprised with growing of crops, use of technologies out of their capabilities resulted in widespread degradation of our precious natural resources, decline of land and water quality, impact of intensive agriculture without adequate conservative measures, living lands uncultivated etc. The report, Kelkar said, will definitely provide solution to overcome the problem. The database of the report also arranged in Bhoomi-geo-portal developed by ICAR-NBSS & LUP and also on the digital India platform. A mobile App LRIS Goa is also developed and is available in Google store which can be downloaded for visualisation, sharing and mining by using android based mobile. Principal scientists, (NBSS & LUP), Nagpur-Maharashtra, Dr Rama Murthy, Dr Chaitanya and others attended the function. Assistant Diector of Agriculture Satej Kamat conductde the programme and latr proposed a vote of thanks.