Tamil Nadu’s Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare MRK Panneerselvam on Saturday, presenting the state’s first budget for agriculture, said it is dedicated to the farmers protesting in Delhi against the three farms laws of the central government. The DMK government headed by Chief Minister MK Stalin had announced that a separate budget for agriculture will be presented by the government earlier.

“There are more challenges viz., decrease in cropped area due to conversion of agricultural lands into real estate, depletion in soil nutrition, declining of water resources due to over-exploitation; reluctance among youngsters to take up farming, deprivation of remunerative price for agricultural produce, enhanced cost of cultivation, post-harvest loss, etc. Farmers are shouldering these hard challenges in agriculture like Atlas,” he said. According to Panneerselvam, a total of Rs 34,220.65 crore has been allocated for the agriculture and allied sectors for the year 2021-22.