Swaminathan proposes Indian model of WTO to prop up farming

Eminent agriculture scientist MS Swaminathan has mooted an Indian version of the World Trade Organisation that will formulate domestic norms for better governance of the farm sector, among other things.

Eminent agriculture scientist MS Swaminathan has mooted an Indian version of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) that will formulate domestic norms for better governance of the farm sector, among other things.

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"We should set up an Indian Trade Organisation, which will be a domestic counterpart of the WTO and it should have our own set of guidelines for the welfare of the farm sector in step with norms of the WTO," Swaminathan said in New Delhi in a lecture, addressing members of Parliament late last evening.

He added that the ITO should incorporate appropriate provisions on the lines of the WTO guidelines taking into account domestic needs so that it can serve the farm community in a better way.

As fears of the fallout of a "below-normal" monsoon deepen the architect of the country's Green Revolution said India should form a National Food Security Board and establish at least 50 modern storages to build stocks of foodgrain to deal with an emergency.

"We need to have a pan-political platform (like the) National Food Security Board which will be headed by the Prime Minister... We should build at least 50 modern storages having a capacity to store one million tonnes of foodgrain each," he said.