Framers need a proper procurement policy and current agriculture distress and protests are unfortunate, said MS Swaminathan, renowned agri economist.

With more than 50 percent of the people depend on the livelihood, the largest private sector enterprise is agriculture, Swaminathan said.

One of the key demand of farmers protest across the country is the implementation of the recommendations made by a panel under Swaminathan. The panel had proposed a national policy on agriculture as early as 2007 but successive governments have failed to act.

“It required much deeper attention to the problems of agriculture including production, processing, marketing, value addition, both internal marketing and external marketing, import-export policies and input-output pricing policy -- they are not looked at in totality and that’s why we have the problem today,” Swaminathan said.

First Published:Dec 4, 2018 11:18 PM IST