The West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, today highlighted the problems plaguing the rural economy and emphasised the need to implement land reform programmes to improve the plight of the rural masses. Delivering the 15th foundation day address of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), Mr Bhattacharjee also said that some of the prescriptions of the WTO to land use, cropping pattern, and the future of food self-sufficiency had serious implications. The new trade and patent regime curbed the rights of farmers and threatened to take the country "from biodiversity to genetic slavery."