Need to initiate corrective measures Agriculture minister Abdul Aziz Zargar's observation that the Agriculture Universities in J&K have failed to achieve any productive results in terms of research in this field on which more than 70 percent population is dependent for its livelihood needs to be taken into consideration in a larger perspective. There is need to analyse not only what has been achieved by the scientists working in these institutions but also the disability to provide a proper direction in this field from the politicians who have been ruling the roost in J&K. Zargar's assertion that lack of development in the universities has been mainly due to the fact that the top posts have been under the occupation of scientists from outside the state, who do not understand the local conditions and needs of the farming community at large, does not hold good in view of the politicking at the local level. An assessment in the right earnest is required of the functioning in these universities right from their inception to the political interference aided by the unscrupulous politicians. All these factors have been stunting the healthy growth of these institutions and the scientists working therein. At the first instance, the agriculture minister himself cannot escape the blame for malfunctioning of these institutions. Secondly, the authorities need to go into the details how the recruitment process was carried out by the politicians themselves for the top posts because it was none else than the ministers who contributed their bit in selection of the top scientists. Thirdly, as is the usual case, no accountability has been fixed in the working of the varsities since their inception and whenever there has been any attempt to introduce an element of accountability, politicians themselves are to be blamed for the mess created there. Right from the very beginning people enjoying political patronage have been occupying the top posts without requisite qualifications or taking into consideration an element of scientific temper for the healthy development of research facilities and research in newer areas thereon has been totally missing. Scientists are not the only ones to be blamed for this mess because the planners in the corridors of power are to be equally blamed. In fact, the agriculture department and its allied units have never been given the priority they deserved. Surprisingly, the marketing departments attached with various disciplines of agriculture sector have been the dens of corruption and nepotism because of recruitment of political favourites in these units. The marketing departments have utterly failed in providing the requisite support to the farmers for sale of their produce at reasonable prices. In the end, the farmers have been the main losers and that is the reason the farmers abandoned their age-old professions in favour of other ways and means for earning a livelihood. Those continuing with the farming profession have been driven to commit suicides when the debts continued to rise on the small borrowings they made from private money lenders in the absence of any support from the government run institutions and rural banks. Coupled with this has been the major problem of the callous attitude of the agriculture department, which has been failing to provide quality seeds and chemical fertilizers to the farmers well in time leading to frequent crop failures. In the absence of any accountability in the agriculture sector and the research institutions, the crop production has been static for the last 30 years in J&K. This is evident from the data doled out by the government itself. That is why the number of agriculture workers has been going down for the past several years. The situation on the agriculture front is worse in J&K compared to other parts of the country and the government and its agencies appear to be in deep slumber with nobody holding them accountable. Still there is time that the government makes an honest assessment of entire scenario and then initiate corrective measures in the larger interest of the society, particularly the farmers.