Stalin Govt presents Tamil Nadu’s first Agri budget with Rs 34,220 Cr outlay

Chennai, August 14: The DMK-led Tamil Nadu government on Saturday presented its first agriculture budget, allocating Rs 34,220.65 crore to the sector which includes provisions for free electricity to farmers.

The budget has proposed to increase the area of cultivation in the state from 60 to 75 per cent by converting 11.75 lakh hectors of fallow land into farmland over 10 years. Similarly, doubled-cropped areas will be increased to 20 lakh hectares from one lakh hectares in the next 10 years.

Presenting the budget, State Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare Minister MRK Pannerselvam said exhaustive deliberations were held with the farmers and stakeholders from the sector, as he dedicated the budget to the protesting farmers camping outside New Delhi over the enactment of three contentious farm laws.

Among the budget proposals, Rs 15 crore has been earmarked to provide agriculture kit to the 50,000 farmers shovels, weeders, iron pots, crowbars and sickles.

A separate wing of organic farming under the Agriculture Department has also been proposed and subsidies provided to farmers who adopt organic farming. The budget has earmarked Rs 2,327 crore for crop insurance during 2021-22.

A modern agriculture marketing centre has been proposed at Chennai to make farm vegetables available in the city, and an Agricultural Export Facilitation Centre for promoting export trade by farmers and Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs).