New Delhi, Oct 20 (IANS) Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar has called for special safeguard measures to protect small and marginal farmers from the adverse effects of trade liberalisation.
Speaking at a meeting of the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Geneva Monday, Meira Kumar said the reluctance of developed countries to reduce agricultural subsidies has posed problems for the developing nations, a release issued here Tuesday by the Lok Sabha Secretariat said.

The speaker went to Geneva with a six-member delegation to attend the 12th IPU Assembly being held OCt 19-21.

IPU is a platform of world’s parliamentarians to discuss basic concerns of humanity.

Meira Kumar also called for huge investments in agriculture and measures for transfer of technology to the farmers in order to revitalise the farm sector.

“The international research organisations have an important role to play in transferring the benefits of research from lab to land, and, as such, research activities require adequate financial resources and technical cooperation across the world,” she said.

India faces a daunting task to provide food security to 17 percent of the world’s population with the availability of only 3 percent of the world’s arable land and with less than 5 percent of the world’s water resources, the speaker said.

The assembly should take note of the concerns of the developing countries in this matter, she added.

Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman K. Rahman Khan, and parliamentarians K.S. Rao, Ramdas Agarwal, S.K. Biswamuthiary and Jayaprada are part of the Indian delegation.