File Photo: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu (Press Trust of India)
Aiming to give a boost to the farm sector, the Andhra Pradesh government today presented a special Agriculture Budget for 2015-16 with an outlay of Rs 14,184.03 crore.
"Our top priority is to make agriculture and allied sectors profitable and sustainable. Our rural economy will regain its lost glory only when these sectors flourish and our farmers are prosperous," state Agriculture Minister P Pulla Rao said in his budget speech.
The agriculture budget, with an outlay for agriculture and allied sectors, has an allocation of Rs 4,513.45 crore under plan and Rs 9,670.58 crore under non-plan.
State Finance Minister Y Ramakrishnudu presented the general budget in the Legislative Assembly yesterday proposing an expenditure of Rs 1,13,049 crores.
The agriculture budget envisages second phase of debt redemption for farmers, an election promise of ruling TDP, implementation of Primary Sector Mission launched by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, supply of free power to agriculture, soil health management, increased mechanization of farm sector, linking MGNEG Act with agriculture and support to different agri universities as ways to boost the farm sector among others.
Citing a survey of NSSO that 92.90 per cent of the farmers in AP are debt-ridden, the highest in the country, the budget recalled the debt redemption promise made by Naidu during his state-wide 'padayatra' in 2013.
An amount of Rs 4,689 crore was credited in favour of 40.50 lakh farmers belonging to 23.22 lakh families in the first phase during December 2014. Under second phase, 42.16 lakh accounts are in process, as per the budget.
Asserting that the government is committed to provide seven hours of free power to agricultural sector, the minister proposed a budgetary allocation of Rs 3,000 crores for power subsidy to the farmers.
There are 14.6 lakh agricultural services (connections) as of February this year. Noting that detailed action plans are prepared for the agriculture and allied sectors under MGNEG Act, the government made an allocation of Rs 2,717.61 crores for the purpose.
In the Budget, the government proposed allocations to different departments and universities, including sericulture (Rs 93.61 crore), cooperation department (Rs 7.88 crores), fisheries (Rs 187.18 crores), Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University (Rs 367.73 crore), YSR Horticultural University (Rs 53.01 crores), Sri Venkateswara Veterinary University (Rs 124.48 crore) and livestock sector (Rs 672.73 crore).