<b>Ajay Mathur:</b> The Budget needed to be greener

FM has increased the allocations for the ministry of environment and forests by about 10%

The Union Budget, as expected, focused on rural development, agriculture and allied sectors, with allocations in these areas going up by 24 per cent, compared to the previous Budget. The prospects for India’s agriculture, and about half of the country’s workforce that depends on it, is intrinsically linked to the health of the natural resource base that sustains it. The declining gains in productivity of major cereals are a clear indicator of the need to attend to fundamental issues that are affecting the sustainability of the sector, including the pricing of resources and the extension machinery for agricultural research in