For over 25 years, successive governments ignored the crucial sector of UP's economy despite the fact that as much as 79 per cent of the state’s population is dependenton this sector, which contributes 30 per cent to the state’s GDP. UP contributes 19 per cent to the total national food production.

The agriculture universities of UP had played a stellar role in ushering in the green revolution in the state in the 60s with for developing new varieties of wheat, paddy and crops of oilseeds and pulses.

The three agriculture universities in UP are no longer known for any research and development and the state Government has frozen their grants. The priority accorded to research in agriculture can be gauged from the fact for over three decades, the total expenditure on R and D in agriculture is only 0.08 per cent of the total agriculture GDP of the state. The same in Himachal Pradesh is as high as 1.37 per cent.

Said Dr R S Rathore, deputy director general of the UP Council of Agriculture Research, “No short-terms measures will work in UP for reviving the agriculture sector. Be it the opening of agriculture to retail sector or a hike in outlay for research and development, a holistic long-term policy for the agriculture and allied sector should be worked out by all the private and government agencies involved in the sector.”