Addressing resea¬rche¬rs at the inauguration of a two-day national conference on climate change in the city on Saturday, Swaminathan said, “Agriculture is a risky profession now. Monsoon and market are the determiners of agriculture.

The government should insulate agriculture and farmers by encouraging family farmers.” He said since the government has an obligation to provide food grains to every citizen under the Food Security Act, it should encourage home grown cultivation than depending on import of agricultural goods.

“Look at what happened to our onions now. When you import food grains like wheat, the price will shoot up. The government can fulfil its obligation of distributing food grains only with home grown cultivation,” he said.

Talking about ‘below sea level’farming in Kerala, he said, “About 150 years ago, farmers in Kut-tanad in Kerala had practised farming in sea water. They built bio bunds in the sea. Now, we have an international research centre there,” he added.

Talking in detail about the lobby of rich countries in climate change summits, Chandra Bus¬han, director general of the Centre for Science and Environment, said, “Rich countries are not meeting the Kyoto protocol.

They try to buy carbon credits as much as possible and continue to pollute the environment. But they blame developing countries like India and carry on their business that would damage our already warming planet.”