Towards a Manifesto for Reorganising Agriculture

Professor Sharma, distinguished colleagues, ladies and gentlemen allow me to first of all thank the Indian Society of Agricultural Economics and the organisers of this conference, especially the conference President Professor Mahendra Dev, for doing me the honour of inviting me to deliver the first S.R. Sen. Memorial lecture. Dr. Sen was one of our most eminent economists and also a civil servant who served with great distinction after joining the government as the first member of the Indian Economic Service way back in 1938. I think it would be fair to say that among all his many important contributions, both in India and abroad, his primary engagement was with the economics of agriculture. His publications in agricultural economics were well known and much cited (Sen, 1966, 1971). At various times he was also the President of this association, the Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, President of the International Association of Agricultural Economics, the First Chairman of the Governing Body of IFPRI, and Fellow of the American Society of Agricultural Economics. In the Government of India he was also instrumental in establishing the Agricultural Prices Commission, subsequently called the CACP, and the network of agro-economic research centres among other things. It is an excellent initiative of the Society to have instituted this special lecture in his memory.