Andhra Pradesh Agriculture Minister P Pulla Rao has presented exclusive Budget for Agriculture and allied sectors with a size of Rs 14,184 crore for 2015-16.
The government allocated Rs 3000 cr for power subsidy to farmers.
The primary sector contributed Mrs 1.29 lakh crore, contributing 27.84 per cent to the gross state domestic product.
Taking a cue from Karnataka, the united Andhra Pradesh had started the practice of presenting the exclusive Budget for agriculture in 2012-13, with a view to giving a focused approach to the ailing sector. The then Government, however, had to change the nomenclature of the Budget to Agriculture Policy Paper because of some ‘technical’ reasons.
Some of the challenges the sector face include flow of institutional credit and salinity in some of the districts. The recent Centre’s order, calling for putting a full stop to the practice of levy rice procurement from the rice millers is also a challenge the State faces.
The main Budget has allocated Rs 4,300 crore for farm loan waiver scheme in a total budget of Rs 1.13 lakh crore.