TN agriculture budget 2025: Farming & horticulture take center stage

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister M.R.K. Panneerselvam on Saturday (March 15) tabled the Agriculture Budget in the state assembly, with a total outlay of Rs 45,661 crore. The main focus of this year’s budget is on agriculture, horticulture, and allied sectors, ensuring growth across the state’s seven agro-climatic zones.

The minister highlighted the success of the state government’s numerous schemes. He went on to say that the gross cropped area had expanded from 146.77 lakh acres in 2019-20 to 154 lakh acres in 2023-24. Besides this, the double-cropped areas have enlarged from 29.74 lakh acres to 33.60 lakh acres.

The total area under horticulture crops has reached 16.3 lakh hectares in 2023-24. The Tamil Nadu government has a big plan for the bumper growth of fruit, vegetable, and flower cultivation. This initiative will boost productivity as well as farmers’ income.

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Water plays a key role in the high yield of agricultural products; therefore, to increase the water availability, the Water Resources Department has planned 1,071 desilting works at a cost of Rs 120 crore. This project will bring water to farmlands from dams, providing sufficient water to horticulture farmers for their crops and other cultivations.

Several other water plans are in the pipeline of the state government, including undertaking 80,000 water conservation works under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. This venture is likely to cost Rs 2,000 crore. The horticulture sector will get a boom with this initiative; soil moisture can also be improved.

The Agriculture Budget 2025 is set to give a new shape to the horticulture sector and farmers, from where their income will grow, and the state’s economy will also be strengthened.