India, Feb. 1 -- Overall budgetary allocation to agriculture down 8% from last year, no major announcement for flagship schemes

The Union Budget 2020-21 did not seem to address concerns over the agriculture sector even as the ongoing farmers' protests have taken centre stage.

The overall budget of the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers saw a miniscule increase of five per cent from last year's Revised Estimates (RE) but was eight per cent below the 2020-21 Budget Estimates (BE) announced in February 2020.

The total allocation for 2021-22 was Rs 1.23 lakh crore, compared to 1.16 lakh crore in RE 2020-21 and 1.34 lakh crore in BE.

The issue of minimum support price (MSP) has remained contentious. The protesting farmers h...