Acknowledging that agricultural production in the State in recent years had gone down drastically with many a farmer withdrawing from the traditional sector, a meeting of the subcommittee to formulate the State agriculture policy for the next 10 years with the stakeholders has underscored the need to turn farming into a more “charming” vocation and upgrade the status of farmers by implementing a slew of measures. A majority of the traditional farming activities had become unviable, mainly owing to high input cost coupled with acute shortage of labourers. In such circumstances, it was imperative to make farming more lucrative by ensuring an additional 50 per cent income against the cost of production, K. Krishnan Kutty, government-appointed subcommittee chairman, said after the meeting, organised by the Agriculture Department. Talking to reporters after presiding over the meeting of farmers, representatives of local bodies, office-bearers of farmers’ organisations, Mr. Krishnan Kutty, former MLA, stressed the need to make the sector entrepreneur friendly by setting up business groups run by farmers to enhance value-addition and evolve better marketing strategies. He expressed hope that the report of the meeting, the first of its kind in the State, would be submitted to the government in three months after codifying the inputs and issues assessed from various districts to formulate the farm policy for the next 10 years.