The National Commission on Farmers was chaired by Prof. M. S. Swaminathan. It submitted five reports through the period December 2004 - October 2006. The report focused on causes of famer distresses and the rise in farmer suicides. It proposed "faster and more inclusive growth" as the goal.

Recommendations

• Land reforms - Distribute ceiling-surplus and waste lands.
• Prevent diversion of prime agricultural land and forest for non-agricultural purposes.
• Grazing rights and seasonal access to forests to tribals and pastoralists, and access to common property resources.
• National Land Use Advisory Service to link land use decisions with ecological, meteorological and marketing factors.
• Irrigation - Increasing water supply through rainwater harvesting and making recharge of the aquifer mandatory.
• "Million Wells Recharge" programme, specifically targeted at private wells should be launched.
• Substantial increase in investment in the irrigation sector.
• Productivity - the per unit area productivity of Indian agriculture is much lower than other major crop producing countries.
• A national network of advanced soil testing laboratories with facilities for detection of micronutrient deficiencies is recommended.
• Promotion of conservation farming to conserve and improve soil health, water quantity and quality, and biodiversity.
• Increase in public investment in agriculture related infrastructure such as  irrigation, drainage, land development, water conservation, research development, etc to ensure increased productivity.
• Credit and Insurance - Expanding the outreach of the formal credit system and reducing the rate of interest for crop loans with government support.
• Establishing an Agriculture Risk Fund to provide relief to farmers in the aftermath of successive natural calamities.
• Cover all crops by crop insurance with the village and not block as the unit for assessment.
• Developing an integrated credit-cum-crop-livestock-human health insurance package.
• Creating a Rural Insurance Development Fund to take up development work for spreading rural insurance.
• Institutional development services by strengthening producers'' organisations such as self-help groups and water user associations can be taken up.
• Food Security - the decline in per capita foodgrain availability and its unequal distribution have serious implications for food security in both rural and urban areas.
• Eliminating micronutrient deficiency induced hidden hunger through an integrated food cum fortification approach.
• Formulating a National Food Guarantee Act and continuing the useful features of the Food for Work and Employment Guarantee programmes.
• Farmers'' Suicides - State level Farmers'' Commission with representation of farmers for ensuring dynamic government response to farmers'' problems.
• Low risk and low cost technologies to provide maximum income to farmers to cope with the shock of crop failure.
• Price Stabilisation Fund in place to protect the farmers from price fluctuations.
• Village Knowledge Centres (VKCs)  to serve as guidance centres on all aspects of agricultural and non-farm livelihoods.
• Public awareness campaigns to make people identify early signs of suicidal behaviour.
• Agricultural competitiveness - Promotion of commodity-based farmers'' organisations such as Small Cotton Farmers'' Estates.
• This will combine decentralised production with centralised government services for leveraging institutional support and facilitating direct farmer-consumer linkage.
• State Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee Acts [APMC Acts] should work for the development of domestic and international markets for local produce, and move towards a Single Indian Market.
• Employment - Despite structural change in the workforce, agriculture still provides the bulk of employment in the rural areas of India.
• Creating productive employment opportunities and improving the quality of employment in several sectors such that real wages rise through improved productivity.
• The "net take home income" of farmers should be comparable to those of civil servants.
• Emphasizing on relatively more labour intensive sectors.
• Encouraging non-farm employment opportunities by developing particular sectors and sub-sectors.
• Bioresources - Rural people in India depend on a wide range of bioresources for their nutrition and livelihood security. 
• Preserving traditional rights of access to biodiversity and encouraging community-based breed conservation.
• Finally, the NCF recommends that Agriculture which is under the State List be inserted in the Concurrent List of the Constitution.