Agricultural scientist M S Swaminathan has said that increasing farmers' income per hectare was as much of a concern as improving yield per hectare. "The National Farmer's Policy is unique because it shifts focus from land to its tiller," he said while speaking at a conference in Hyderabad.

The conference deliberated on implementing the Farmer's Policy, which was drafted in 2007 by a national commission headed by Swaminathan.

He told the faculty of agricultural universities from across the country to revisit syllabi. "Don't teach students technology, but train them in the business of farming," he added. Swaminathan called for more public investment in modern storage facilities and processing plants while commenting on the sector's negative growth rate in the last quarter. He said there was a huge gap between demand and supply, but problems differed from region to region.

"If temperature drops even by one degree centigrade, we will be short of seven million tonnes of wheat," he said, while talking about the need for 'climate-resilient' agriculture. The most challenging part, Swaminathan said, was delivering the policy to the farmer. "All the government schemes need to be coordinated in a unified effort. Our greatest task will be in making the technology accessible to farmers," the scientist added.