Vijayawada: The state government allocated Rs 930 crore for horticulture in financial year 2025-26 as the Andhra Pradesh is the largest producer of fruits in the country contributing 16 per cent of the country’s fruit production and playing important role in rural areas of the state.

Mango, banana, guava, papaya, sweet lemon, watermelons and many other fruits and horticulture crops are grown extensively in the state. Presenting the agriculture budget, agriculture minister K Atchannaidu on Friday announced allocation of Rs 930 crore for horticulture. Six districts of Andhra Pradesh, Prakasam, Anantapur, YSR, Annamayya, Sri Satyasai and Kurnool are in the top 15 districts in India in production of fruits. As per the estimates, the GVA for horticulture alone at current prices is Rs1.52 lakh crore as against the total agriculture sector GSDP of Rs 5.19 lakh crore, contributing 29 per cent to the agriculture sector.

The state government under the mission for integrated Development of Horticulture sanctioned 590 different types of infrastructure facilities such as pack houses, ripening chambers, collection centres, cold storages, processing units for the year 2024-25.

Horticulture crops are grown in 45.57 lakh acre in the state and production is estimated at 365.92 lakh metric tonnes. Besides, Andhra Pradesh stands first in the area in production of oil palm in the country with estimated crop area of 5.67 lakh acre. The government is sanctioning input subsidy to the farmers, whose crops are damaged due to natural disasters. A total of Rs 43.7 crore input subsidy was sanctioned to 27,436 farmers, whose crops were damaged due to various natural calamities in 2024.