As part of Budget making process Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today held a first pre-Budget consultations with agriculture group in New Delhi. In the meeting, the agriculture groups have demanded enhanced budgetary allocations to improve the investment in the agriculture sector and make crop insurance mandatory for all crops.<br/><br/>Besides this, they have also highlighted the issue of Minimum Support Price for all crops at cost of production, proper implementation of Agricultural Produce Market Committee, APMC reforms in all states and direct transfer of all subsidies to farmers. Talking to reporters after the meeting the Secretary General of Consortium of Indian Farmers Associations, CIFA Bojja Dasaratha Rami Reddy has said, the Agriculture sector is the most downgraded sector in the country and concert steps have not been taken to revive the sector. He said, agriculture sector will not sustain in India unless their is sufficient investment in it. <br/><br/>Director General of the Fertiliser Association of India, Mr Satish Chandera has demanded that the government should clear the outstanding subsidy bill on fertiliser which will reach Rs 50,000 crore by end of march this year. He also said all the subsidies should be transfered directly to the farmers. <br/><br/>The meeting was attended by MoS Finance Jayant Sinha, chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian along with the ministry's secretaries including, Finance Secretary Ratan Watal, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikant das, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia and among others. The customary pre-budget consultations are considered important as it helps government in formulating policies. Government has also invited suggestions from the public for 2016-17 Budget in its bid to make the exercise more broad.