Yeddyurappa defends presenting farm budget

BANGALORE - Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa Thursday defended presenting a separate budget for the agriculture sector for the ensuing fiscal 2011-12, terming it an innovative step.

I hope the Karnataka agriculture budget will become a model to the centre and other states across the country, as the farm sector has the potential to generate more jobs and high income in rural areas, the chief minister told reporters here.

After presenting the sixth consecutive budget and fourth as chief minister of the first Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the southern state, Yeddyurappa said there was no constitutional bar on presenting a separate budge for the agriculture sector.

States have a major role to play than the central government in the development of the agriculture sector. Hailing from a rural farming family, I am aware of the difficulties millions of farmers face, the chief minister asserted.

The agriculture budget proposes to give crop loans at one percent interest rate through cooperative credit institutions and spend Rs.17,788 crore for developing farming, allied and irrigation sectors in the new fiscal (FY 2012).

One of the objectives of farm budget is to check migration of rural people to urban areas in search of jobs and ensure food security for all by boosting foodgrain production, Yeddyurappa stressed.

Of the total budgetary allocation, Rs.3,180 crore has been earmarked for agriculture and horticulture, Rs.3,900 crore for providing free power to irrigation pumpsets, Rs.1,077 crore for animal husbandry & fisheries and Rs.7,800 crore for irrigation.

Allocation for agriculture and allied sectors activities has gone up by 52 percent to Rs.18,000 crore from Rs.11,000 crore in this fiscal (2010-11), the chief minister pointed out.