Andhra Pradesh govt's upcoming agriculture budget aims to end sectoral distress

Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh government will present a comprehensive agriculture budget envisaging a strategy for ending agrarian distress in the state and for making farming a remunerative enterprise.

The agriculture and allied sectors budget would be presented on August 22 to the Legislative Assembly by Agriculture Minister P Pulla Rao.

"Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu was moved by the suffering of farmers that he saw during 'padayatra' (foot march) and the multi-pronged strategy to deal with the multi-dimensional problems of farmers evolved out of that," state Finance Minister Y Ramakrishnudu said in his Budget speech in the Assembly on Wednesday.

The most important aspect of the strategy would be coordination and integration of all the schemes and activities being implemented by various departments meant for development of agriculture, he said.

"The strategy to bring about such integration is preparation of a separate Agriculture Budget, as a part of general budget," he said.

The agriculture budget will underscore details of the comprehensive strategy covering agriculture and allied activities, he said.

Referring to the TDP's poll promise of waiving off the farm loan, the Finance Minister said the government would leave no stone unturned in its efforts to raise resources for clearing loans of farmers.

"We thought that unless this relief is given, it would be very difficult to build a sound foundation for sustainable agriculture in future. We would have to overcome various technical hurdles raised by the RBI and banks for implementing the scheme," he said.

The TDP government has already decided to give debt relief to farmers on loans taken by them for crop production, including gold loans, from banks and cooperative societies up to an extent of Rs 1.50 lakh per family.