Are agricultural policies information based?

I am grateful to ISAM and Professor Radhakrishna and Dr. Satyanarayana for inviting me to deliver the First V.M. Rao Memorial Lecture. It is indeed a great honor. Anyone who has read his work on Tumkur and his Millennium book on Rainfed Farming for the State of the Farmer Series will understand what I am saying. V.M. Rao was involved in the details of the farming experience in rural India. But he almost involuntarily and by habit as it were, also built the concepts for others to use. The NDA Government had in its Political Manifesto stated that the Information Base for agricultural policy will be changed. But not much has happened. We will discuss a few issues, which maybe on the agenda in the near future.