Swaminathan seeks white paper on WTO agreement

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JAN. 6. Noted agriculture scientist, Dr. M.S. Swaminathan, has urged the Government to bring out a white paper on the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) agreement and Indian agriculture to ``dispel notions and misgivings''.

Such a paper would reassure the 70 per cent of India's farming population that their livelihood options were not being mortgaged without adequate consultations and consensus, he said while delivering a lecture on `Shaping our Agriculture Future' at the 88th session of the Indian Science Congress here.

Dr. Swaminathan said, in a democratic society, the citizen had the right to know the facts and hence a paper on agriculture trade will be timely. Agriculture as a whole is the major determinant of the livelihood of nearly 700 million Indians. Trade policies which affect it are of concern to rural population and large numbers of urban poor.

He said the white paper must address issues such as what were the expectations on farm exports and imports when India agreed to the WTO's agreement in agriculture in 1994? What has been the experience of six years? What are the rationale and international compulsions in relation to tariff rates with reference to farm commodities? What is the stand Government plans to take in the re-negotiation of the WTO agreement in agriculture?

Dr. Swaminathan described the ``unequal trade bargain inherent in the WTO agreement, the rapid expansion of propriety science and the potential adverse changes in temperature, precipitation and sea level as ``external threats to our agricultural progress''.

The global threats can be overcome by ensuring that the Kyoto Protocol relating to the climate convention was implemented by the U.S. and other industrialised nations and adequate support was extended to public research.

A `Livelihood Box' for the next 10 to 15 years will be included in the re- negotiated agreement which will permit developing countries to impose quantitative instructions on the import of agriculture commodities, when such imports were likely to destroy livelihood opportunities for resource-poor farming families and landless agriculture labour.

The moratorium of 10-15 years may be necessary until effective post-harvest infrastructure, facilities for scientific land use planning and effective agro-processing and agribusiness enterprises were developed by developing countries.

The internal threat to farm progress can be faced by integrated attention to regulation, education and social mobilisation through the Panchayat Raj institutions, Dr. Swaminathan, said.

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