Though the state government today hosted AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi to brainstorm on farmers’ issues to be included in the 2014 Lok Sabha manifesto, the Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government has been dragging its feet on notifying the state’s agriculture policy since September, 2012. The policy was submitted by the Haryana Kisan Ayog, headed by Dr RS Paroda, a former Director-General of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research(ICAR) to the Hooda Government in September, 2012. The policy suggested some ideas to accelerate the annual agricultural growth to over 4 per cent. Diversification of agriculture was the major thrust of the draft policy as it noted that “ the major cropping system, namely the rice-wheat cycle, has resulted in overuse of water, fertilizer, mono-cropping and other natural resource management-related problems.”. Among the issues touched upon by the policy were the declining total factor productivity, rising cost of production and increasing concern on quality of food, increasing international competition due to globalisation of agriculture, more area under the cereal-based (rice-wheat) cropping system, declining acreage under leguminous crops, degrading soil fertility and emerging threats for state agriculture. Besides, the draft policy underlined the need for food, nutrition, employment and livelihood security for all and linking farmers to markets for increased income. Sustainable agriculture and environmental security were other issues dwelt at length in the policy. To achieve over 4 per cent agricultural grown, the draft policy expected the state government to ensure uninterrupted power supply to farmers for a minimum 12 hours. As the power supply to the farm sector is highly-subsided and discoms are in the red, this provision could have held the notification of the policy, which was once brought before the Cabinet for approval, sources said. A senior government functionary, however, claimed that the agriculture policy would be tabled at the next Cabinet meeting for approval.