Naidu seeks Nirmala Sitharaman’s support for setting up of Indian School of Agriculture in A.P
Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has requested Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to extend support for the establishment of the Indian School of Agriculture (ISA)
Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has requested Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to extend support for the establishment of the Indian School of Agriculture (ISA) at Madanapalle with the collaboration of Reliance Group. The State government would be signing an MoU for it with Reliance on August 3, he told Ms. Sitharaman in a meeting at his residence here on Friday. He noted that the ISA was a part of the Rayalaseema Integrated Horticulture Development Plan and said it would focus on AI in agriculture, digital agriculture, and climate sustainability and promote cutting-edge research in climate-smart agriculture, digital farming, post-harvest systems and global market intelligence.
It would also play a key role in attracting investments in food processing, logistics, and agritech through public-private partnership and as the anchor partner, the Reliance Group would set up startups, incubators and accelerators. Aquaculture The Chief Minister appealed to Ms. Sitharaman to take steps for stabilising the prices of raw materials used in the manufacture of shrimp feed, saying that a steep rise in prices was adversely impacting aquaculture business in the State. The price rise cast an additional burden of ₹25,000 per ton, he said and sought support for promoting the domestic market for shrimp and aquaculture products, formation of Farmer Producer Organisations and connecting aqua farmers with the market.
Naidu also wanted the Centre to hold consultations to reduce the tariffs imposed by the U.S. on aqua products exported from the State, pointing out that the U.S. imposed a 5.77% countervailing duty on shrimp exported from India and was also considering imposing anti-dumping duties. A.P. accounts for nearly 80% of shrimp exported from India, he stated. Tax burden on tobacco The Chief Minister requested the Union Finance Minister to reduce the tax burden on tobacco products, bringing to her notice the worries that calculating GST on the basis of the heavily increased excise duty on cigarettes was burdensome.
He expressed concern that tobacco products were in the highest tax slab since the implementation of GST and mentioned that out of 230 million kg production this year, only 34 million kg has been purchased.
The BriefWire