Commerce Minister Kamal Nath has called for energizing the group of 33 countries (G-33) to protect the interests of farmers in developing nations at ongoing World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks.

Speaking at the G-33 ministerial meeting in Jakarta over the weekend, Kamal Nath said: "We ask for nothing more than what the Doha Development Agenda and the WTO July Framework Agreement already affords us."

The G-33 must be prepared to take a determined stand on these issues, he told the ministers of the grouping, which originally numbered 33, but has now expanded to 42, to protect the interests of developing countries in agriculture

It is an alliance on special products and special safeguard mechanism - the two instruments provided in the Doha Declaration to protect the food and livelihood security concerns of developing countries.

Kamal Nath also suggested that meetings of the G-33 be held on the sidelines at important multilateral trade-related meeting as in the case of the G-20 so as to facilitate further discussions, a press release issued here Sunday said.

The Indian minister also participated in the G-33 meeting as the lead discussant on other key issues in the WTO agriculture negotiations such as domestic support and the tariff reduction formula.

Kamal Nath stressed that special products and special safeguard mechanism were no more and no less than concrete and operational provisions for providing food security and livelihood security to developing countries.

The criteria for designating special provisions would need to be tailored to meet the requirements of individual countries.

These, he said, could include the population dependent on a product and the size of farm holding of farmers engaged in cultivating those products, since the nature and range of agriculture across developing countries varied widely.

"Also, special safeguard mechanisms need to be designed in way that would be easy to implement. Both volume and price triggers should be allowed in applying special safeguard mechanisms against surge in agricultural imports," he said.

"Developed country domestic support must be substantially reduced and export subsidies phased out by an end date which should not be more than five years. "Agricultural market access cannot be expected when subsidies continue."