Amidst fear of drought looming large over Karnataka, the State Budget 2023-24 presented by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has proposed to reintroduce the erstwhile Congress government’s flagship scheme of Krishi Bhagya that seeks to turn dry-land farming into climate resilient through rainwater conservation measures.
The Budget says that the Krishi Bhagya scheme, that had been discontinued by the erstwhile BJP dispensation, would be reintroduced in convergence with the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme with an outlay of ₹100 crore.
However, there are concerns among agricultural experts as the allocation for agriculture and horticulture sectors has come down by 1% of the State Budget size. As against the allocation of ₹9,456 crore during the earlier Budget presented by the then Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai in February that was 3% of the total Budget size, the present Budget has allocated only ₹5,860 crore for this sector which accounts for 2% of Budget size. This is expected to hit various ongoing schemes.
Loan scheme continued
Meanwhile, Mr. Siddaramaiah has not only continued the previous government’s scheme of increasing the upper ceiling for interest-free short-term loans from ₹3 lakh to ₹5 lakh, but has also increased the ceiling for medium and short-term loans that are available at 3% interest from ₹10 lakh to ₹15 lakh. The Budget says over 30 lakh farmers would benefit from the loan scheme that has a financial outlay of ₹25,000 crore.
The Budget has also provided ₹10 crore for branding of farmers’ produce on the lines of Nandini. It has also announced creation of 50 high tech harvester hubs for farm mechanisation at a cost of ₹50 crore. For meat lovers, it has proposed to develop animal produce processing and value addition units and modern markets with private participation to ensure supply of protein rich meat and eggs to consumers at affordable rates.
Irrigation allocation down
The allocation for the irrigation sector has come down from 8% of Budget size (₹22,854 crore) in February to 6% of Budget size (₹ 19,044 crore) now.
The Budget has proposed to irrigate 25,948 hectares of land by completing 10 languishing irrigation projects at a cost of ₹ 940 crore. It has also proposed to complete 19 tank filling projects at a cost of ₹ 770 crore.
