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Reaffirming its commitment to the farm sector, Odisha presented an exclusive agriculture Budget for this fiscal too with an outlay of Rs 2,727.99 crore, 50 per cent higher than Rs 1,823.77 allocated in the state's first ever agriculture Budget in 2013-14.
The agriculture Budget has also envisaged enhancement in public investment in agriculture and allied sectors from Rs 7,161.84 crore in 2013-14 to Rs 9,542.22 crore in the current fiscal, an increase of 33 per cent.
Plan outlay for the sector has been raised to Rs 2,234.92 crore from Rs 1,397.24 crore in the last fiscal. “The Plan outlay of Rs 2,234.92 crore includes proactive interventions in various agricultural activities like crop husbandry, horticulture, soil and water conservation, agriculture research and education and other agricultural interventions,” Finance Minister Pradip Amat said in his Budget address.
Schemes that have got substantial allocations under the agriculture Budget are Major and Medium Irrigation Projects (Rs 1,985 crore), Minor Irrigation Projects (Rs 1,166.95 crore), Sustainable Harnessing of Ground Water in water deficit areas (Rs 520 crore), Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (Rs 550 crore), Popularisation of agricultural implements, equipment & diesel pump sets (Rs 150 crore), corpus fund for fertilisers (Rs 100 crore), interest subvention on short term crop loans (Rs 426.38 crore) to name a few.
Realising the need for long-term credit for capital investment in farming activity, the Budget has set aside Rs 10 crore towards interest subvention on term loans availed from cooperative and commercial banks.
The Budget has a provision of Rs 2.5 crore to provide free mobile phones, each costing Rs 1,000, to the farmers to enable them access to market prices of agricultural products.
Since agriculture sector needs reliable and quality power supply for energising lift irrigation points, the Budget has a provision of Rs 100 crore for Odisha Dedicated Agriculture and Fishery Feeder scheme. Under this scheme, 11 clusters for dedicated agriculture feeders and 18 dedicated fisheries feeders have been identified.
