UP Budget provides roadmap for progress of agriculture-oriented state: Finance Minister Suresh Khanna

Lucknow, (Uttar Pradesh) February 22 : The second budget of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath government's second term, which was presented by State Finance Minister Suresh Kumar Khanna in the state assembly on Wednesday, has "much to offer to the farmers", with the budget giving "top priority to farmers' interests, agricultural education and research".
With a focus on farmers and agriculture, the budget provides a roadmap for the progress of an agriculture-oriented Uttar Pradesh," Finance Minister Khanna said.
The budget focuses on the promotion of agricultural education, research, and development to increase farmers' income and has earmarked Rs 50 crore for the establishment of Mahatma Buddha Agriculture and Technology University in Kushinagar, Mahatma Buddha's final resting place. Apart from that, the government's agricultural, agricultural education and research, sugarcane development, and sugar industry schemes are as follows.
Under the agriculture sector, Finance Minister Suresh Khanna said that it is proposed to organize 17,000 Kisan Pathshalas in the year 2023-24 for 'The Million Farmers School.'
A provision of Rs 631.93 crore has been made for the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture scheme. Under the National Mission on Natural Farming scheme, a provision of Rs 113 crore 52 lakh is proposed for the scheme. A provision of Rs 1950 crore has been made for the supply of electricity to private tube wells at subsidized rates for the farmers, Finance minister Khanna said.
A provision of Rs 984.54 crore is proposed for the National Agriculture Development Scheme.
The government has arranged Rs 753. 70 crore for the National Crop Insurance Scheme.
An allocation of Rs 55.60 crore has also been made for the implementation of the UP Millets revival programme.
Besides, Rs.102.88 crore has been allocated for Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Kisan Samriddhi Yojana in the budget. A provision of Rs 100 crore has been made in the Self-reliant Farmers Integrated Scheme budget. The government has arranged Rs 15 crore each to distribute pulses, and oilseed seed mini kits. A provision of Rs 2 crore is proposed for the Agri-Stack scheme for the digital database of farmers in the budget.
Since 2017, approximately 46.22 lakh sugarcane farmers in Uttar Pradesh have received a record sugarcane price of more than Rs 1.96 lakh crore, ranging from Rs 95,125 crore to Rs 86, 728 crores.
Sugarcane productivity increased by 1,00,875 tonnes per hectare, increasing farmers' income to Rs 34,656 per hectare at an average rate of Rs 349 per quintal.
The minimum support price for wheat in the Rabi marketing year 2022-2023 was set at Rs 2015 per quintal. Purchasing 3.36 lakh metric tonnes of wheat from 87,991 farmers through PFMS in farmer accounts during the marketing year. The portal has received 675 crore in payments.
Under the Kharif marketing year 2022-23, the Government of India has fixed Rs.2040 for the common category and Rs.2060 per quintal for Grade-A. While purchasing 62.66 lakh metric tonnes of paddy, Rs 12,000 crore has been paid directly into the bank accounts of 10.30 lakh farmers through the PFMS portal, State Finance Minister Suresh Khanna informed.
Under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana, in the year 2022-2023, more than Rs 51,639.68 crore has been transferred directly to the bank accounts of the farmers through DBT.
The Finance Minister informed that damaged transformers of private tube wells of farmers are being replaced on time.
"Lifting the ban on providing private tubewell connections to farmers in the state's dark zone has benefited 1 lakh farmers," State Finance Minister Suresh Khanna said.
State Finance Minister emphasized on agricultural education, research and development to increase the income of farmers with an arrangement of Rs 20 crore being made for an Agritech startup scheme in 4 agricultural universities of the state.
The Finance Minister said that a provision of Rs 50 crore has been made for the establishment of the Agriculture and Industrial University at Kushinagar.
In the budget, a provision of about Rs 35 crore has been made for the infrastructure works in Agriculture University, Kanpur, Ayodhya, Banda and Meerut.
Under Acharya Narendra Dev University of Agriculture and Technology, Ayodhya, the work of teaching and learning has started in Agriculture College (Campus), Azamgarh. The construction work for the establishment of Agriculture College (Campus) in Gonda is in progress, Khanna informed.
The Finance Minister said that the sugar industry is an important agro-based industry of Uttar Pradesh, providing a living for approximately 46 lakh sugarcane farmer families.
In the crushing season 2021-22, sugarcane was cultivated in 27.60 lakh hectares in the state and 120 sugar mills produced 101.98 lakh tonnes of sugar by crushing 1016 lakh tonnes of sugarcane. In the current crushing season 2022-23, 117 sugar mills have been operated, and the sugarcane area of the state is 28.53 lakh hectares in this season, due to which the production of sugar is estimated to be more than 105 lakh tonnes, Khanna said.
The State Finance Minister said the current government established an escrow account mechanism in 2017 to ensure timely payment of sugarcane prices to farmers. The sugar mills have been completely barred from diverting the amount of sugarcane price items.
The Finance Minister said that in the last five years, 27,531 hectares of sugarcane have been planted in the last five years.