State Agriculture Ministers support recommendations of NCF

New Delhi, Dec 23 (UNI) The State Ministers of Agriculture and Allied Sectors have supported the recommendations made by the National Commission on farmers covering the entire farming spectrum.

The recommendations covered the major thrust areas including water management and its conservation, appropriate seed development, use of IT to improve farmers' realisation, need to strengthen extension services and marketing infrastructure, provision of adequate power to the farmers, need to protect soil and improve its productivity, encouragement to non-farm employment and livestock, assurance of a reasonable price to the farmers and special focus on the small and marginal farmers.

The Conference called to discuss the recommendations concluded here last evening. The Commission, chaired by Prof M S Swaminathan, had recently submitted its fifth and final report to the Government.

Concluding the Conference, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said that there is a broad agreement on National Commission on Farmers's (NCF) recommendations given in the revised Draft National Policy for Farmers.

The Government would now proceed further on the basis of broad agreement arrived in the meeting and take action to have a comprehensive approach regarding implementation of the Commission's recommendations which would be placed before a special meeting of the National Development Council (NDC) to be held during March 2007 on the Draft National Policy and other aspects of agricultural development and food security.

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