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.
