State presses ahead despite less rain

Amaravati: Agriculture minister Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy presented the annual agriculture budget for the year 2018-19 on Thursday with an estimated outlay of Rs 7607.49 crore. Of which, an amount of Rs 7,372.49 crore is the revenue expenditure and R 235 crore is capital expenditure. 

He listed out the measures taken by the agriculture department and the government for the development of agriculture sector in the state and to enhance the production of paddy, maize, pulses and other crops. 

He said the state government is sanctioning crop loans and supplying seeds on subsidy in time to help the farming community. In spite of deficit rainfall, the state achieved a good progress in cultivation of crops, he added.   

Giving details of growth recorded by the state, the minister said the agriculture sector recorded a growth of 17.44 per cent, horticulture 18.63 per cent, fisheries 44 per cent and livestock registered growth of 12 per cent in the financial year 2017-18.

As per the second advance estimates, food grain production is estimated at 157.59 lakh metric tonnes (MT) in the year 2017-18 which is six per cent more than the production of 149.16 lakh MT.

The state recorded paddy cultivation with average output of 5176 kg per hectare in the kharif 2017 season. Maize recorded an all-time highest productivity of 4,587 kg per hectare with output of 21.43 MT. Similarly, the pulses production is estimated at 11.44 MT for the year 2017-18 as against 9.31 lakh metric tonne the previous year.

He informed the Assembly that Andhra Pradesh stood second in India in the production of maize, third in paddy, fourth in cotton and sugarcane in the country in the year 2016-17.  

Giving details of paddy production Delta region, the minister said the farmers of Krishna delta were able to reap Rs 3416 crore worth of paddy with the water supply through Pattiseema lift irrigation scheme from Godavari.

He said the agriculture department had supplied 10.07 lakh quintals of seed in time with the subsidy value of Rs 419 crore to the farmers in a transparent way using Aadhaar enabled bio-metric system, through D-Krishi App. He said the state won the prestigious CSI-Nihilent e-Governance project excellence national award for promotion of agriculture, he added.  

Giving details of agriculture loans, the minister said the credit facility has been extended as crop loans during the 2017-18 to the tune of Rs.60,616 crore as against the target of Rs.63,106 crore.

Agriculture term loans of Rs.17,678 crore were disbursed as against the target of Rs 24,365 crore to farmers of agriculture and allied sectors. The minister said the crop area in kharif season for 2017 was 36.70 lakh hectares (91 per cent of the normal area) even though the state recorded 42 per cent deficit rainfall. In rabi season, the cultivation area is 96 per cent of the normal crop area, he added.