Livestock and dairying may get 20% hike in FY 25 budget

The animal husbandry and dairying department may get a 20% higher allocation of 5,193 crore in the FY25 interim budget, two senior officials said, reflecting a sharper focus on improving dairy and livestock health. The increase is expected on account of a higher allocation for schemes targeted for dairy, livestock health and animal infrastructure—a sector that has been growing at around 8-10% annually. Until the third quarter, the department had spent 45% of its budgeted estimate (BE) of 4,328 crore and expects to use up the rest of the corpus in the last quarter of the ongoing financial year. Schemes like the Rashtriya Gokul Mission (RGM), which aims to promote indigenous bovine breeds in order to increase milk production, have got a higher allocation of nearly 1870 crore in the revised estimate (RE) for FY24 from the BE of 1600 crore. However, the overall RE has been trimmed to 4,184 crore, with the department confident of spending the entire allocation by the end of the ongoing financial year. The Live mint Jan 24th 2024 by Puja Das