The State government of Andhra Pradesh has given a big relief to farmers. It has announced a new scheme for the welfare of the farmers.
Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, in his vote-on-account speech, said, “He will allocate Rs. 5,000 crore to ‘Annadata Sukhibhava’ for this financial year. Under the crop loan waiver scheme (‘Annadata Ki Apatbandavudu’), loan of ₹24,000 crore had been waived and the final two installments would also be credited to their accounts soon.”
However, Minister for Agriculture Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy, also addressed that 8,000 crores would be credited to the loan accounts of the farmers towards the fourth and fifth installment of the loan waiver scheme.
Mr. Ramakrishnudu also said that Rs. 384 crore had been credited to 2.23 lakh loan accounts of the horticulture farmers.
Interestingly, the government improved the market intervention fund from ₹500 crore to ₹1,000 crore for crops that did not have Minimum Support Price (MSP). The State government issued a ‘certificate of cultivation’ to the tenant farmers to enable them to avail institutional credit and crop insurance, farm implements, and input subsidy. This certificate has been issued for the first time in the country.
Therefore, the loan extended to the tenant farmers could be increased from ₹272 crore covering 1.34 lakh farmers in 2014-15 to ₹4,957 crore covering 11.06 lakh farmers in 2018-19.
According to Mr. Ramakrishnudu, despite rainfall deficit of 33% in 2018-19, drought-proofing initiatives ensured that the agriculture sector grew by 15%. Adding to it, Andhra Pradesh also allocated 81,554 crores for agriculture and farmers’ welfare in the last four-and-a-half years.
