Jaipur: Considering the distress faced by farmers and the agitations that followed across the state, the state Budget has laid extra emphasis on farmers and agriculture.
Apart from announcing a one-time loan waiver of up to Rs 50,000 for small and marginal farmers who have taken loans from cooperative banks, Raje has made an additional provision of Rs 544 crore to provide short-term crop loans and interest subvention to farmers in the cooperative sector.
The chief minister has also provisioned Rs 500 crore as interest free loan for Rajasthan State Co-operative Marketing Federation Ltd (RAJFED) to procure mustard and gram under the minimum support price (MSP) scheme.
The Budget has also provisioned to enhance the storage capacity of godowns for procured food grains and oil seeds through MSP.
It has made an allocation of Rs 356 crore to create additional storage capacity of five lakh tonnes.
Apart from increasing the subsidy to construct farm ponds from 50% to 60%, the Budget has raised the subsidy for ‘Jal hauz’ from Rs 75,000 to Rs 90,000. An additional 25% top-up subsidy (Rs 90 crore) has been announced for the construction of ‘diggis’ in canal areas.
In order to promote green house agriculture, the Budget provides 50% subsidy on the construction cost or a maximum of Rs 10 lakh to set up a green house and shade.
An additional subsidy of 35% and 40% on 3HP and 5HP solar pump systems has also been proposed in addition to the 25% and 20% subsidy given, respectively, on the same by the Union government. Thus the total subsidy has increased to 60% in both the categories.
Besides, Rs 40 crore has been allocated for advance storage of 2.25 lakh Mt of urea and diammonium phosphate (DAP).
BOX
Item Allocation (cr)
Increase grain storage(5lakh MT) Rs 350
Advance storage of Urea and DAP Rs 40
Procuremnt of mustard and gram(RAJFED) Rs 500
Subsidy to set up green houses Rs 32
