Coimbatore: The "collapse" of World trade Organisation (WTO) talks at Cancun had given India a "breathing spell" to improve its agricultural competitiveness, eminent scientist Dr M S Swaminathan said on September 26.

"It is good for our country, at least India can improve the competitiveness in the agricultural field in the intervening period of next round of talks," he told reporters.

Regretting that no positive step had been taken to improve the competitiveness during the last eight years, he said the country should now concentrate on strengthening the productivity, quality standards and also post-harvest technology in the field.

"Since Western countries have become more health conscious now, we cannot export whatever surplus production we have," he said, adding that even the jute bags were being rejected by some countries, which found pesticide residue in them.

Besides improving productivity and quality, the country should also be conscious about the usage of per unit of water and land, instead of yield per hectare, so that loss of production could be brought down even during serious drought conditions, Swaminathan said.

When asked about increasing incidents of suicide by farmers, particularly in Karnataka, Swaminathan said if a proper system of sustainable farming was not put in place, "there will not be happy farmers' families in the country".

PTI