UP Budget Proposes Rs 750 Crore For Maintenance Of Stray Cattle; Focus On Agriculture Development

The Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday proposed Rs 750 crore for maintenance of stray cattle and allocated Rs 120 crore for establishment of cow protection centres. The state Budget for 2023-24 also proposed 17,000 'Kisan Pathshalas' and allocated funds for subsidised electricity supply to private tube wells and agriculture universities.

Out of 187 proposed cow protection centres in all districts of the state, the construction work of 171 centres has been completed. The budget proposed Rs 631.93 crore for National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture, Rs 113.52 crore for National Mission on Natural Farming , Rs 1,950 crore for supply of electricity to private tube wells for farmers at subsidised rates.

It also earmarked Rs 984.54 crore for National Agriculture Development Scheme, Rs 753.70 crore for National Crop Insurance Scheme, Rs 55.6 crore for the implementation of UP millets revival programme. The budget also proposed Rs 102.81 crore for Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Kisan Samriddhi Yojana, Rs 100 crore for Self-reliant Farmer Integrated Scheme, Rs 15 crore each for pulses and oil seeds seed minikit distribution scheme.

For agricultural education and research to increase income of farmers, an arrangement of Rs 20 crore has been made for the agritech startup scheme in 4 agricultural universities of the state. While Rs 50 crore has been proposed for the establishment of Mahatma Buddha Agricultural and Technological University in Kushinagar, Rs 35 crore has been given for infrastructure works in agricultural universities of Kanpur, Ayodhya, Banda and Meerut.

The budget proposed Rs 86.95 crore for the scheme to strengthen and revive the existing milk unions and Rs 61.21 crore for the implementation of Nand Baba Milk Mission besides Rs 60 crore for dairy projects in Meerut and Varanasi districts. Under the Uttar Pradesh Dairy Development and Milk Product Promotion Policy, 2022, a budgetary arrangement of Rs 25 crore has been made for providing financial grants, concessions and other facilities to the units of the milk industry to be established in the state.

An arrangement of Rs 116.52 crore has been made for the prevention of animal diseases while Rs 3.44 crore has been earmarked for sheep-rearing scheme in districts where sheep are the predominant livestock. Under Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana, provisions of Rs 257.50 crore for wholesale fish market, Rs 741.98 crore for Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises, Rs 206.27 crore for National Horticulture Mission have been made. The budget also proposed Rs 100 crore for the implementation of Uttar Pradesh Food Processing Industry Policy, 2022.