HYDERABAD: Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy on Friday said that the area under cultivation has increased from 1.31 crore acres in 2014 to 2.38 crore acres by 2022-23, or 81.6%.Addressing the media while explaining the progress of agriculture in the last 10 years at a hotel here, Niranjan said that paddy production has gone up from 68 lakh tonne to 3 crore tonne.
Since 2014, he said that 722.92 lakh tonne paddy has been procured by spending Rs 1.33 lakh crore, and other crops have been procured by spending Rs 11,439.06 crore. Niranjan said that 45 lakh acres have been brought under irrigation through Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS) and another 12.30 lakh acres in six districts will be irrigated through Palamuru-Rangareddy LIS.
Disclosing that Rs 72,815 crore has been spent in 11 phases of the Rythu Bandhu scheme, he said that insurance claims worth Rs 5,566 crore have been disbursed to families of 1,11,320 farmers through Rythu Bima. He said that crop loans worth Rs 16,144.10 crore have been waived in the first phase of loan waiver covering 35.31 lakh farmers, and Rs 13,000.51 crore has been spent in waiving off loans of 22.98 lakh farmers till now in the second phase.