New Delhi, April 1: Micro irrigation in Andhra Pradesh covers an area of 9.697 million hectares (HA) since the 2015-16 year period, Parliament learned on Tuesday.
In a written reply to Lok Sabha, the Minister of Agriculture, Ramnath Thakur, said that it included 20,819 hectares covered by the PDMD scheme in the Tirupati region.
Under the PDMD program, farmers are provided financial assistance to install micro-irrigation systems, at 55% and 45% of unit costs for small and marginal farmers and other farmers, including costs for minority communities, respectively.
In addition, the Andhra Pradesh government has provided additional/recharge subsidies to encourage farmers to adopt micro-irrigation.
According to the Andhra government, 19,272 farmers have benefited from the plan for the Tirupati region since 2015-16.
According to the state government report, 14,332 hectares of rice and tobacco were transferred to beans, millet, corn and oilseed under the orderly and tobacco under the crop diversification program from 20222-23 to 2024-25 under the crop diversification program.
To encourage the cultivation of less water-intensive crops, several steps are being taken, including promoting water-based crops such as millet and beans, cluster demonstrations on good agricultural practices, distribution of certified seeds, production of certified seeds, distribution of inputs for soil and plant conservation management, and more.
Dry horticultural crops are also promoted in water stress areas in the state.
