AP Budget: Rs 16,251 cr for agriculture, allied sectors

Aiming to make agriculture less costly and more profitable, productive as well as sustainable, Andhra Pradesh today presented a special budget for the sector with a total outlay of Rs 16,250.58 crore. Presenting the special Budget for 2016-17, Agriculture Minister P Pulla Rao said the government's main focus would be on large scale promotion of farmer producer organisations, covering 10 lakh producers in agriculture, horticulture, dairy and aquaculture sectors. "The government will mobilise farmers into groups at village level and federate them into FPOs to enhance production, productivity and profitability of small and marginal farmers in the state. The objective is to infuse innovative technology and convert farming into a viable business proposition," the minister said. Stating that horticulture sector contributed Rs 41,478 crore to the state's economy in 2015-16, Pulla Rao said it has been identified as 'one of the growth engines' for overall development of the primary sector under mission mode. The state government was committed to implement micro irrigation under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana in a big way with an outlay of Rs 369.58 crore in 2016-17, the minister added.