He said in the first phase, the earmarked Rs 500 crore for development of AI technology for the agriculture sector will help over 50,000 farmers, with over one lakh hectares of land coming under it.The Finance Minister said that the state government has made a provision in the budget to complete irrigation schemes and maximise the area of land under irrigation. “We approved the Wainganga—Nalganaga river linking project that helps farmers of six districts. The estimated cost of this project is Rs 88,574 crore. It will help to bring 3,71,277 hectares of land under irrigation in Maharashtra. Besides, Rs 7500 crore has been approved for Nar-Par-Grina river linking project that will bring 49,516 hectares of land under irrigation. Moreover, the Daman Ganga Ekdare-Godavari river linking project will provide 3.55 TMC water, restoring 9766 hectares of land. The estimated cost of this project is Rs 2300 crore,” he said, adding the state government has also undertaken an ambitious Rs 19,000 crore worth Tapi Mahapurandaran irrigation project.Ajit Pawar said power supply is a key factor for the growth of the agriculture sector hence the government has planned to provide abundant electricity to farmers. “We will try to meet the 16,000 MW of electricity demand in the agriculture sector by encouraging solar power supply to agriculture pumps. We launched the CM Solar Agriculture Feeder Scheme 2.0 for 2779 electric substations across 27 districts. In Maharashtra, by end January 2024, a total of 2,90,129 solar agriculture pumps have been installed and each day, 1000 solar pumps are being installed in the state,” he added.
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