MARGAO: The Central scheme implemented by the Department of Agriculture, Goa named 'Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana' (PKVY), in order to produce agriculture products free from chemicals and pesticides, has faced set back due to the lockdown in the wake of COVID-19. The programme of conducting training in these regards to nearly 13,000 farmers in Goa has been badly affected. Agreeing to the above fact, the Director of Agriculture Nevil Alphonso has said that recently the department discussed this issue in a meeting and now it is decided to start the training programmes in July. He also said that the information of all approved 500 clusters and details of farmers are yet to be uploaded on the website by the central agency. “Once it is uploaded then the next procedure will follow, including the training of farmers," the Agriculture Director told GT. It may be noted that the PKVY aims at supporting and promoting organic farming, in turn resulting in the improvement of soil health. The objective is to produce agriculture products free from chemicals and pesticide residues by adopting eco-friendly, low-cost technologies. It also aims in promoting organic farming among rural youth/farmers/consumers/traders. The process of this scheme was started in Goa in 2019. Nevil further informed that after preparing the baseline survey at the taluka level department has created 500 clusters in Goa and they have been given approval by the government. "The only thing which was left was training to the farmers and uploading of all the details of clusters and farmers on the website. But due to the lockdown in wake of COVID-19 has hampered the procedure. There is a ban on mass gathering and hence we cannot hold the training session. Now, we are waiting for the government decision for further course of action plan," he added. Nevil further informed that the department has created 500 clusters consisting of around 13,000 farmers in order to provide them the training of doing organic farming in Goa. This scheme will be implemented on the land of 10,000 hectors and it will run for three years. The registration of the farmers was done at the taluka level by the concerned zonal agriculture offices. The training for the above-registered farmers was supposed to commence in these days. But now due to the lockdown, the training program has been held up. "In the training, program department was supposed to give detail information and guidelines with regard to the soil, crops, organic fertilizers, marketing of organic agriculture products, Under this scheme we had planned to guide the farmers with regard to Cashew, coconut, and cultivation on Khazan lands in Goa", said Nevil. He also said that besides the above crops we had a plan to give guidelines pertaining to organic cultivation of different types of vegetables in Goa.