Perhaps in an unprecedented focus, the 53rd NDC meeting will look exclusively at the farm sector, reflecting the spirit of Pandit Nehru’s declaration after independence, “Everything can wait, not agriculture.”

The meeting comes just two weeks after the full meeting of the Planning Commission here. The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, will chair the one-day meeting that will see the participation of chief ministers and lt governors of all states and Union territories. The meeting will endorse a joint commitment of the Centre and states to achieve four per cent growth in agriculture as proposed in the Approach Paper. It will also resolve to re-orient farm development strategies with the avowed objective of rejuvenating the agriculture and allied sectors.

Highly placed sources said the meeting will cajole the states to draw up comprehensive plans for agriculture, exploiting their different agro-climatic conditions and natural resources, using high-tech and fully integrating livestock, poultry and fisheries. Some five to six specific strategies are required to bridge the gap between technology and yield in agriculture and to improving farming conditions, says a background paper to the Planning Commission from the Prime Minister’s Office.