India's farmers are right to protest against agricultural reforms


The massive campaign organized by India’s farmers against laws to deregulate the agricultural sector has entered its ninth week. The government in New Delhi, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has tried to negotiate a compromise. But its attempts to placate the farmers have thus far failed.

© AP Photo/Altaf Qadri Proponents of the new laws claim they will help India's agricultural sector, but small, rural farmers fear losing their livelihoods.

The strength of the mobilization has now compelled the government to suspend the laws for 18 months and form a new committee including representatives of the government and the farmers to address their grievances.

The farmers’ leaders insist that the laws must be completely repealed. Reportedly, more than 50 of their members have died, taking their lives in desperation or succumbing to illness during the cold winter nights. The thousands of farmers encircling the capital insist they will remain until their demands are met.

They are right to protest.

The agricultural sector only contributes about 15 per cent of national income, yet more than half of India’s workers depend on it for their livelihood. The vast majority are small farmers, sharecroppers and landless laborers who struggle to stay afloat on precarious wages, shrinking plots and the vagaries of the monsoon.

The costs of production continue to rise. Growing indebtedness, either to informal moneylenders or formal banks, has tragically compelled thousands to take their lives over the past two decades. Inadequate public investment in roads, irrigation and cold storage and poor credit facilities have severely constrained the productivity of Indian agriculture. Systematic reform is long overdue

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© (AP Photo/Bikas Das) A protest march in Kolkata in support of farmers. Protests in support of the farmers have taken place across India.

Last week, the Supreme Court of India stayed the implementation of the agricultural reforms, appointing an expert committee to find a solution. Yet its members support the laws, leading the farmers’ representatives to dismiss them as pro-government mediators.

The court has damaged its already weakened credibility by failing to articulate plausible constitutional grounds for its sudden and arbitrary involvement. High judicial intervention has inflamed the situation, rather than ending it.
Why the farmers revolted

Advocates of the three landmark reforms passed by the Indian parliament last September claim they will expand the choice farmers have. They argue that allowing large corporations to dominate the sector will spur land consolidation, investment in mechanization and generate economies of scale that will enhance productivity.

Instead of selling their crops to the government at a minimum support price in local state-regulated markets, farmers can now sell their harvest via contracts to a much wider range of private actors in a national market. As a result, farmers’ incomes will rise and food prices will decline.

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© (AP Photo/Bikas Das) Many farmers fear the new laws will jeopardise their livelihoods.

Yet, consider the fine print of these laws and the larger economic realities facing small farmers in India. The vast national marketplace in the making will only be available to those who can afford to get their produce across state borders.

The majority of farmers will still have to sell their crops locally. There is also a very real risk that agricultural deregulation will lead to farmers being paid less than the minimum support price. That has already happened in some Indian states where similar reforms were tried.

The new laws also expose small farmers by removing the courts from resolving disputes that are likely to take place. India’s legal system is infamously backlogged, but compelling small farmers to seek redress through local administrative processes leaves them vulnerable to the influence large corporations. Massive power asymmetries will encourage corporate oligarchies.

Canada has traditionally pushed for greater deregulation of Indian agriculture at the World Trade Organization. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s remarks a few weeks ago defending the farmers’ right to protest peacefully drew a sharp rebuke from New Delhi. It also led commentators in Canada to criticize the prime minister for placating a political constituency at the expense of national economic interest.

But what may be in Canada’s national interest could easily come at the expense of millions of small farmers, sharecroppers and landless workers, who are right to fear being forced off the land to face harsh economic insecurity.

Reinvigorating democracy

When he was first elected in 2014, Prime Minister Modi famously promised to create 10 million good jobs in construction, manufacturing and infrastructure every year to absorb India’s growing labour force.

Yet aggregate economic growth has significantly declined during his tenure. Private investment has stagnated while unemployment has risen. Hence, tens of millions of migrants continue to travel to the cities in different seasons to work in the informal sector, returning to their villages to sow and harvest various crops to make ends meet.

© (AP Photo/Manish Swarup) A farmer participates in a protest on a highway at the Delhi-Haryana state border in New Delhi, Dec. 3, 2020.

Historically, India has struggled to replicate the expansion of labour-intensive industrialization that enabled the economic transformation of North America, Western Europe and East Asia. The greater capital intensity of production in our 21st-century economies makes it harder than ever.

All of this was known before the government introduced these laws through an executive order over the summer while India struggled to contain the pandemic. Rather than consult farmers’ unions and state-level governments, the BJP government transformed the executive order into legislation in September. It then rammed the legislation through parliament via a voice vote, refusing opposition demands for the laws to be sent to parliamentary committee for further scrutiny.

The high-handed passage of these laws was characteristic of the BJP, whose deeply majoritarian ideology has sought to undermine the legitimacy of opposition, status of minorities and separation of powers in the world’s largest democracy. The dramatic political mobilization of India’s farmers, whose legitimate concerns were never heard, provided a desperately needed check.

Highly organized and strategically encamped at key entry points surrounding New Delhi, the farmers’ protest movement is the most powerful India has witnessed in decades. It is forcing the BJP government to relearn the art of democracy.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Sanjay Ruparelia does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

The uprising of India’s farmers: The significance and history behind the worldwide protests

By Taz Dhaliwal Global News

CANADA
Posted December 12, 2020 
Updated December 13, 2020 

As a standoff between tens of thousands of protesting farmers and the Indian government continues to intensify over new legislation farmers claim will threaten their livelihoods, Taz Dhaliwal takes a look at the factors that led to the demonstrations which have garnered international attention.

Farmers in India continue to stand their ground at border points in the country.

A standoff between the Indian government and tens of thousands of farmers — who are peacefully protesting against three farming reform bills — continues to grow near Delhi.

The #DelhiChalo peaceful protests have sparked others to take place across India and other countries, with many Punjabi and Sikh farmers leading the charge on the ground locally and abroad to raise awareness about the issue.

On Sept. 20, the bills were passed into law by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“What we see in India is an incredibly powerful dominant party, like we’ve not seen since the 1970s, and a prime minister who looms large over the political landscape,” said Sanjay Ruparelia, Jarislowsky democracy chair and associate professor of politics at Ryerson University.

Ruparelia said the protests, which have essentially unfolded as a farmer’s movement, are truly “remarkable.”

The Indian government has argued the changes will give farmers more freedom, but farmers argue the new legislation will drive down their products’ prices with no safeguards to protect them against corporate takeovers and exploitation, further devastating their livelihoods.

READ MORE: Here’s why farmers in India are protesting and why Canadians are concerned

“The political side is that this government has been very autocratic in the way in which it has pushed through big reforms,” Ruparelia said.

“I should say on the agricultural side, the reforms they put through in September, there were a lot of economists and others who thought there had to be some reforms in the agricultural system, whether these are designed properly or not, is the question,” Ruparelia said.

Sixty per cent of India’s workforce is employed in the agriculture sector, but the industry only represents about 15 per cent of India’s GDP, with a majority being small scale farmers.

The concern behind the protests

Many protestors by the Delhi border points are from the states of Punjab and Haryana, which are considered India’s bread basket.
 
Although, the peaceful demonstrations turned violent when the government used military tactics to clamp down on the dissent being expressed by frustrated farmers.

Protestors have been met with water cannons on some of the coldest winter days Delhi has experienced, along with tear gas, concrete barricades, and some were even beaten with batons. Many of the farmers are also seniors.

Despite the agitation from the government, farmers remain strong in their resolve to see the bills repealed in order to protect their future.

Khalsa Aid International is a non-governmental organization that has been providing protestors with shelter, clothing, food, water, first-aid kits, hygiene products, and even fire-extinguishers at the encampment site by the Delhi border. Volunteers are stationed at three different areas.

“So our team has actually been working with the India team for several months. The protests themselves started in Punjab after these kind of three controversial bills were passed in September,” Khalsa Aid Canada national director Jatinder Singh said.

The organization said it’s deeply troubled by what its volunteers have witnessed as protestors endure the implementation of brute force by the Indian government.

“For us, it was very difficult to see the families, the elderly farmers being subjected to the water canon and tear gas,” Singh said.

“You know people often say India’s this vibrant democracy, but the only thing really vibrating were the tear gas canisters, that were being thrown at these peaceful protestors.”

Singh said he hopes the negotiation talks between the dozens of farmer’s unions and the Indian government will result in an outcome allowing farmers to be able to sustain their livelihoods.

The largest protest in human history is going on in India and we the world cannot afford to be silent.

Let’s raise our voices against violence and support equal human rights for all.#HumanRightsDay #FarmerProtests 🌾 pic.twitter.com/CMkecWa9QQ

— Khalsa Aid Canada (@khalsaaidca) December 10, 2020

He also said Khalsa Aid is not currently fundraising for the farmers, despite receiving some voluntary monetary donations from people. Singh said the donations they already received will go towards helping protestors with their humanitarian needs.

Singh said the farmers have made it clear they do not want funds to be raised for them, instead they ask that people continue to show solidarity by raising their voice and concerns over the bills.

The World Sikh Organization of Canada (WSO), which promotes and protects the interests of Sikhs in Canada and around the world and advocates for the protection of human rights for all, has also expressed concern over the troubling treatment of protestors as they try to practice their democratic right to peacefully protest.

“I was particularly worried and terrified for my own family members. We actually have an uncle who’s part of a union and he’s out there,” said Harman Kandola, Alberta vice-president with the World Sikh Organization.

Kandola said this concern is due to the Indian government having a history of violence against Sikhs and other minorities in the country.

“So it’s unsurprising in some elements where there is use of violence when you’re talking about peaceful protestors,” Kandola said.

He says the protestors are simply asking to be heard, and based on his conversations with people on the ground in Delhi, many feel disenfranchised due to the barriers that have been put in their way when they tried marching to their own country’s capitol, making them feel like outsiders.

Kandola said with so much of the Indian diaspora that exists throughout North America coming from Punjab, those individuals are genuinely concerned about the well-being of their family and friends in India.


“So, when we see these farmers we see our brothers, our sisters, our family members, we see our forefathers,” Kandola explained.
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“For so many of us, our families tilled the land in India. They were farmers, that is our background, and so it’s hard to disconnect from that. You’re always connected to that spirit,” he said.

READ MORE: ‘We feel hopeless’: Indo-Canadian Punjabis fear for families in Indian farmers’ protests

The anti-farm bills being protested

The first, the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, will allow farmers to deal directly with corporations and private buyers.

The bills allow farmers to sell their produce outside government-controlled agricultural markets called ‘Mandi’s’, which ensured prices wouldn’t get too high.

The bill may also mark an end to a decades-old system guaranteeing minimum support prices for staple crops called an MSP.

The second law, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, deals with pricing. The bill will push farmers, corporations and private buyers to negotiate contracts. However, several farmers have voiced their concerns over not having the bargaining power to negotiate with corporate giants.

The bill also curtails farmers’ ability to challenge contract disputes in court.

And the third, the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, seeks the “modernization” of India’s food supply chain by reducing stockpiling, removing commodities like “cereals, pulses, oilseeds, edible oils, onion and potatoes” from the current list of essential commodities.

It also aims to “drive up investment in cold storages” and give farmers the “freedom to produce, hold, move, distribute and supply” their products.

However experts have noted since most of India’s farmers are small-scale farmers, they wouldn’t have the ability to compete with corporations when it comes to stockpiling and producing on a large scale, giving rich investors an unfair advantage and an opportunity to manipulate market prices.

“With the entry of the corporate private players into this agricultural procurement and agricultural production, what they see is that they will have complete control over how much they produce and how much they’ll pay back the producers,” 

said Chinnaiah Jangam, associate professor, History of modern South Asia

 Carleton University.

Jangam goes on to say it is important to note the legitimate fear many farmers have of losing their ancestral lands to corporations, due to not being able to compete on the same level.

In some cases where debt has gotten unbearable, farmers have had to give up their lands when they’re unable to pay back their loans.

An additional concern is that these bills were passed without stakeholders being consulted or deliberation from the opposition.

“What has agitated a lot of opposition in India is precisely the fact the government rammed through these bills, these momentous bills, essentially liberalizing agriculture without any deliberation in parliament,” Ruparelia explained.

“The opposition requested these bills go to parliamentary committee for further scrutiny, the government disallowed it.”

India’s agricultural history

Although, crisis in the agriculture sector in India is nothing new as the industry has been suffering for decades.

The face of agriculture changed significantly in the 1960s, when India went through the green revolution, under then prime minister Indira Gandhi, who implemented the growth of high-yielding wheat and rice crops to address famine in the country.

The revolution marked the beginning of industrializing the agriculture sector, and introducing new methods of fertilization and the use of pesticides, and some farmers felt they had been exploited in order to produce these high-yielding crops for the government.

“One line of critique was that it lead to growing inequalities and disparities in the Indian countryside between richer farmers with large farm holding assets and a vast surplus of agricultural labour,” Ruparelia said.

Post-Green Revolution, the production of wheat and rice doubled because of initiatives put forth by the government, and the production of crops such as indigenous rice varieties and millets declined.

This then lead to the loss of distinct indigenous crops from cultivation and even caused extinction.

Fast forward to the 1990s when corporate genetically modified seeds were introduced to increase even higher yields.

Ever since then, farmers have been taking huge loans to pay for irrigation, fertilization and pesticides, but in instances where they saw no return on their investments, some die by suicide in large numbers, when they feel trapped in a cycle of debt.

More than 300,000 farmers have taken their own lives in India over the last two decades.

Suicide, along with substance abuse and the mental health of farmers have been additional ongoing concerns in the Indian agriculture sector.

History professor Jangam said in a historical sense, farmers symbolized a lot of dignity and self respect, but he said these reforms, and the decades leading up to them, have placed many in unaffordable debt, stripping them of fair prices for the crops they labour over.

Jangam goes on to speak of a time when farmers where more self-reliant, were able to take more pride in their work and weren’t on the brink of being at the mercy of corporations.

“They are the most self-respecting people, because they don’t have to work for anyone, they can just live on their land,” he said.

“This system has robbed their dignity.”

And now these protests may just be the farmers way of saying ‘enough is enough,’ as many see this most recent legislation as the straw that broke the camels back.

READ MORE: Music motivates mounting movement in India as farmers reject govt proposals

The unwavering farmer’s protests represent a symbolic fight towards salvaging their depleting livelihoods.

-With files from Global News’ Emerald Bensadoun
© 2020 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

India: Farmers launch nationwide strike over new laws

Farmer unions in India have called for a general strike over new agricultural laws that are aimed at liberalizing the industry. The nationwide shutdown comes a day before talks with the government.


Indian farmers called for a one-day nationwide strike on Tuesday after days of blockading New Delhi in a bid to force the government to repeal its new market-friendly farm laws.

Tuesday's strike, called Bharat Bandh, will see tens of thousands of farmers blocking key roads and rail lines across the country for several hours, affecting transport services and offices.

They have received support from railway workers, truck drivers and other unions, who will be joining them in the strike.

The farmers have emphasized that the strike will be a peaceful protest, and they will ensure that emergency services such as ambulances and fire brigades aren't affected.

"Our protest is peaceful, and we'll continue that way. Bharat Bandh is a symbolic protest to register our opposition. It is to show that we don't support some of the policies of the government," farmers' union leader Rakesh Tikait told reporters.

Read more: India farmers threaten Delhi blockade in protest of Modi's agriculture reforms

The strike comes after five rounds of talks between farmers' unions and the government failed. The sixth round of talks is scheduled for Wednesday.

Tens of thousands of farmers have camped near the border of New Delhi since November 27 to protest the new laws, blocking most of the entry points to the national capital.

The farmers have said they will not return home until the laws are repealed.

The Indian government issued an advisory to all states and union territories to boost security. Thousands of extra police personnel have been deployed in Delhi and neighboring states where farmers have been protesting for nearly two weeks.

VIDEO India: Farmers demand repeal of agricultural market reforms

What are the laws they are protesting?

In September, India's parliament passed three controversial agriculture bills aimed at liberalizing the country's farm sector. They were subsequently signed into law, sparking farmers' protests across the country.

The government argued that the new laws will give freedom to farmers to sell their produce outside regulated markets and enter into contracts with buyers at a pre-agreed price.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) insists that the laws will fetch better prices and free farmers from traditional middlemen who dominate the trade. The government hopes that its new policy will double farmers' income by 2022.

Farmers' associations say the legislation does not guarantee the acquisition of farm produce through state-run organizations that guarantee a minimum support price (MSP), thus leaving them at the mercy of corporations that are now expected to enter the country's troubled farming sector.

"We are fighting for our rights. We won't rest until we reach the capital and force the government to abolish these black laws,'' said Majhinder Singh Dhaliwal, a farmers' leader.

Opposition parties and even some allies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi have called the laws anti-farmer and pro-corporation and called on the government to accept the farmers' demand to roll them back.

Protesters from the Left Front political party blocked railways in Kolkata

Domestic and international support for farmers

More than 15 opposition parties and many non-BJP-ruled state governments have backed the strikes. The government has accused Congress, the main opposition party, of opportunism.

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said Congress supported privatizing the agricultural sector but is now opposing it to gain favor with the farmers, an influential voting group.

The farmers have also received support internationally. Several US lawmakers have voiced their support for the ongoing protests.

"I stand in solidarity with the Punjabi farmers in India protesting for their livelihoods and protection from misguided, manipulative government regulations," Congressman Doug LaMalfa said on Monday.

"Punjabi farmers must be allowed to protest peacefully against their government without fear of violence," the Republican said in a tweet.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also reiterated his support of Indian farmers last week.

Trudeau released a Twitter video calling the police crackdown on the farmer protests "concerning" and saying they should be allowed to stage peaceful protests.

"Canada will always stand up for the right of peaceful protests anywhere around the world. And we are pleased to see moves towards de-escalation and dialogue," he told reporters in Ottawa.



INDIAN FARMERS CONTINUE PROTEST AGAINST NEW DELHI
Talks inconclusive
Farmers from the northern state of Punjab sit in protest at the border between Delhi and Haryana amid an ongoing deadlock with the national government.
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India’s farmers launch nationwide shutdown against new agricultural reform laws

Farmers have vowed to block major roads and rail lines across the country and have been given support by railway workers, truck drivers and teachers

They want laws they say will force produce prices down to be repealed, but which the government insist are necessary for agriculture’s long-term future


Agence France-Presse in New Delhi
Published:  8 Dec, 2020

Indian farmers threaten weeks of protests as talks with government continue

Indian farmers who have been blockading New Delhi on Tuesday launched a one-day, nationwide general strike to push their demands for the government to repeal reform laws opening up trade in agricultural produce.

Tens of thousands of farmers have been camped on the outskirts of the capital since November 27 

in protest at the laws in what has become one of the biggest challenges to the Hindu nationalist government since it won a second landslide election in 2019.

Farmers have vowed to block major roads and rail lines across the country for several hours and have been given support by railway workers, truck drivers, teachers and other unions.

Farmers react after police tried to stop them from entering New Delhi to protest against new farm laws on Monday. Photo: EPA

Authorities have put thousands of extra police on the streets in Delhi and boosted security in the rest of the country in a bid to head off any trouble.

Five rounds of talks have failed to narrow differences between farmers and ministers. The growing numbers of farmers and their supporters camped outside the capital say they will not go home until the laws are repealed.

The laws will allow farmers to sell their produce on the open market – including to supermarket chains – instead of being forced to sell through state-run organisations that guarantee a minimum price.

Farmers carry crops after harvesting a field on the outskirts of Kolkata earlier this month. The government insists reforms are necessary to give Indian agriculture a long-term future. Photo: AFP

Farmers say the industry will be taken over by major firms who will force prices down. The government insists the changes are necessary to give agriculture – still the backbone of the Indian economy – a long-term future.

The protests have already caused price rises for fruit and vegetables in Delhi because supplies are restricted.

Rakesh Tikait, a protest leader, said that people should not travel during the shutdown and all stores should close.

Thousands of Indian farmers protest against market reforms as government talks fail to ease anger

Balbir Singh Rajewal, another leader, said: “We want nothing less than a withdrawal of the new farm laws.”

The main opposition Congress party and about 15 other political groupings are backing the protest but the government has accused them of opportunism, rejecting measures that they had called for when in power.

The farmers are strongest in the north of the country, but even the government in the southern state of Karnataka suspended online school lessons for the day to show support.

Indian farmers vs Modi: protesters ‘ready to die’ in winter of discontent
4 Dec 2020


Top athletes including wrestler Kartar Singh, who won gold medals at the Asian Games in 1978 and 1986, said they would return national awards in protest at the laws.

Singh alongside hockey player Gurmail Singh – gold medallist at the 1980 Moscow Olympics – and former women’s hockey captain Rajbir Kaur tried to march on the presidential palace on Monday to hand back awards but were stopped by police.

A new round of talks on the disputed laws are to be held on Wednesday.

Farmers shout slogans next to a police barricade amid foggy condition during a nationwide general strike to protest against the recent agricultural reforms at the Delhi-Haryana state border in Singhu on December 8, 2020. (AFP)

India's protesting farmers set sights on key state election

Farmers vow to campaign against ruling party in 

next year’s state election in Uttar Pradesh

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Salimah Shivji · CBC News · Posted: Sep 20, 2021 

People shout slogans during a grand village council meeting as part of a farmers' protest against farm laws in Muzaffarnagar in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India, on Sept. 5, 2021. (Adnan Abidi/Reuters)

The mission for the group of Indian farmers sitting in a makeshift tent at a protest camp near the Indian capital of New Delhi is crystal clear.

The farmers are huddled to reinvigorate their months-long fight against controversial new farming laws passed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government last year. 

Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party is "running scared and on the defensive," said Jasbir Kaur Natt, a member of the Tikri border action committee that plans local protests.

"We have decided that we will hurt the BJP and defeat them" at the polls in next year's state election in Uttar Pradesh, she said.

Kaur Natt is convinced of this after two events this month that have galvanized the farmers' protests following a lull in demonstrations while India was battling a devastating second wave of the coronavirus pandemic in the spring. 

Jasbir Kaur Natt, centre, discusses the next steps with fellow members of the Tikri action committee, which plans future protests. She calls a recent farmers’ rally a 'shot in the arm' for the protest against India’s new farming laws. (Salimah Shivji/CBC)

The first was a massive gathering that organizers called the largest since the protest movement began last November, which saw tens of thousands of farmers rally in Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh. 

The predominantly agricultural state is India's most populous and has a state assembly election set for early next year — a fact that hasn't escaped the farmers, who are preparing for a battle. The state is controlled by the BJP.

"We'll intensify our protest by going to every single city and town of Uttar Pradesh to convey the message that Modi's government is anti-farmer," one of the more prominent union leaders, Rakesh Tikait, told the crowd gathered at Muzaffarnagar on Sept. 5. 

Farm leaders are also calling for a countrywide strike on Sept. 27, to draw more attention to their protest against the new laws.

A farmer sits on a tractor as he attends a grand village council meeting in Muzaffarnagar on Sept. 5, 2021. Farmers are an important voting bloc in the country, with slightly less than 60 per cent of Indians dependent on the agricultural sector to earn a living. (Adnan Abidi/Reuters)

For nearly 10 months, India's farmers have been fighting three new laws passed without consultation last year. The farmers say the laws will destroy livelihoods and leave smaller farmers vulnerable to being squeezed out by large corporations. 

The Indian government insists farmers will be better off under the new legislation, which loosens rules around how they can sell their goods. The government has also pledged to improve incomes, but farmers want the laws repealed. 

The sustained protests have created a tricky situation for the Modi government. Farmers are an important voting bloc in the country, with slightly less than 60 per cent of Indians dependent on the agricultural sector to earn a living. 

Demonstrations entrenched

Numerous rounds of talks between government officials and agricultural union leaders have failed to break the impasse and the demonstrations are now entrenched, with quasi-permanent protest camps still located at three locations that ring the Delhi national capital region They first materialized in late November 2020. 

The camps are a "well-oiled system," said Dalwinder Singh, a farmer from Haryana state who has been living at one of the sites for 10 months, only leaving occasionally to tend to his crops.

He sees it as his duty to stay at the site to promote the farmers' wider goal: to keep attention on the issue and pressure on the Indian government.

WATCH | India's farmers say they won't back down until new farming laws are repealed: 

India farmer’s have ramped up their protests after nearly a year, saying they won’t back down until new farming laws are repealed. They’re hoping to influence elections early next year in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state. 2:16

Singh was also at the second protest that has injected new energy into the farmers' movement this month: a sit-in that lasted several days outside a government office in Karnal, in Haryana state. 

The city was the site of a protest in August that turned violent, with police officers charging at protesters with their batons. Ten people were injured, but anger against the authorities intensified when a video went viral in which a government official is heard telling police officers to "smash the heads" of protesting farmers.   

"The fight for Karnal was very important," Singh told CBC News. "We had to prove a point." 

The farmers got what they wanted: an inquiry will look into what happened and the bureaucrat seen in the video has been placed on leave until the investigation's report is released.  

"We got justice," Singh said. "It's obviously given us a big boost." 

'A major factor'

For agricultural policy analyst Indra Shekhar Singh, what happened in Karnal is a "litmus test" of the potential the farmers have to disrupt local politics because of how quickly the state government gave in to the farmers' demands. 

With five months to go until the state election in Uttar Pradesh, he believes the farmers have both the time and the will to sway voters.

Farmers listen to union leaders speaking at the Tikri camp, near the border with India’s capital New Delhi, on Sept. 12, 2021. They’ve been camping in protest against the country’s controversial new farming laws since late November 2020. (Salimah Shivji/CBC)

"For the first time, farmers will be a major factor and a major pressure group in the elections in Uttar Pradesh," said Shekhar Singh, a commentator formerly with the National Seed Association of India. 

"There is a very high probability that the BJP will face a strong resistance." 

The resistance is building at the Tikri protest camp, where Kaur Natt couldn't keep the smile off her face as she looked back on the last few weeks. 

'A shot in the arm'

"The Muzaffarnagar [rally] was a shot in the arm," she said. 

"It is going to be 10 months since we have been sitting here," she said, while adding quickly that the farmers have the time and patience to keep at it. "One thing is clear: we will not budge until these laws are repealed." 

‘This is my life now,” says 90-year-old Mahender Sangar, who has been living at the Tikri protest site for five months in a small tent with nine others. (Salimah Shivji/CBC)

That same determination is what keeps 90-year old Mahender Sangar going. He now spends his days living in a tent with nine other people. 

• India's farmers' protests mark 100 days — here's what's happening now

• CBC EXPLAINS
  What's behind the farmers' protests that are blocking highways in India

"This is my life now," he told CBC. "You can't afford to insult the farmers the way this government has, so I've decided to make this my home until we win this fight."

UPDATE
India farmers protests: Thousands swarm Delhi against deregulation rules
By Julia Hollingsworth, Swati Gupta and Esha Mitra CNN

Tens of thousands of farmers have swarmed India's capital where they intend to camp out for weeks to protest new agricultural laws that they say could destroy their livelihoods.

© Biplov Bhuyan/Hindustan Times/Shutterstock 

Farmers congregate during day five of the protest against the new farm reform laws at Singhu border on November 30, 2020 in New Delhi, India.

Farmers from the nearby states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh began arriving by tractors and on foot at the outskirts of New Delhi last week, where they blocked roads and set up makeshift camps, according to protest leaders. Some slept on the road or in their tractors, and several places of worship offered protesters food.

Police attempted to block demonstrators from entering the city. They fired tear gas and water cannons Thursday and Friday after protesters pelted police officers with stones and damaged public property, according to Manoj Yadav, a senior police official from Haryana.

The farmers are protesting laws passed in September, which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi says will give farmers more autonomy to set their own prices and sell directly to private businesses, such as supermarket chains.

But the move has infuriated India's farmers, who say that the new rules will leave them worse off by making it easier for corporates to exploit agricultural workers who make up more than half of India's 480 million-strong workforce, according to India's most recent Census in 2011.

According to Ashutosh Mishra, the media coordinator of protest organizer All India Kisan Sangharsh Committee, which represents around 200 farming unions, tens of thousands of demonstrators have gathered at each of New Delhi's three borders -- a line of protesters at one of the borders stretches for 30 kilometers (19 miles), he said.

Police have put up barriers and dug up roads to prevent protesters from coming into the city center to hold sit-ins. Mishra expects more farmers from around the country to join the protests in the coming days.

That's despite New Delhi being a hotspot for Covid-19 in a country that has already reported more than 9.4 million reported cases, the most in any country bar the United States.

"We are trying to be weary of Covid but we don't have an option -- it is a question of life and death," said Mukut Singh, the president of a farmers union in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, who is leading thousands in protest in his home state, and says he will join the protesters in Delhi later this week.

"We are the ones who have provided food, milk, vegetables when the whole country was in lockdown -- we were still toiling in the fields," he said. "It is the government who has put us at risk by introducing these laws during Covid."

What the protests are about

For decades, the Indian government has offered guaranteed prices to farmers for certain crops, providing long-term certainty that allows them to make investments for the next crop cycle

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© Mayank Makhija/NurPhoto/Getty Images 

Security personnel deployed to stop farmers from entering the national capital during a protest against the Centre's new farm laws at Singhu border near Delhi, India on November 30, 2020.

Under the previous laws, farmers had to sell their goods at auction at their state's Agricultural Produce Market Committee, where they were guaranteed to get at least the government-agreed minimum price. There were restrictions on who could purchase at auction and prices were capped for essential commodities.

Modi's new laws dismantle the committee structure, allowing farmers to sell their goods to anyone for any price. Farmers have more freedom to do things such as sell direct to buyers and sell to other states.

Modi said increasing market competition would be a good thing as it fulfills farmers' demands for higher income and gives them new rights and opportunities.

© Biplov Bhuyan/Hindustan Times/Shutterstock

 Farmers prepare food during day five of protests over farm reform laws at Singhu border on November 30, 2020 in New Delhi, India.

"The farmers should get the advantage of a big and comprehensive market which opens our country to global markets," Modi said on Monday, as farmers protested in the capital. He hopes it will attract private investment into the agricultural industry, which has lagged as other parts of the country's economy have modernized.

But farmers argue that the rules could help big companies drive down prices. While farmers could sell crops at elevated prices if the demand is there, conversely, they could struggle to meet the minimum price in years when there is too much supply in the market.

Singh, the Uttar Pradesh farmer, said that removing the price guarantees will make life tougher for farmers.

"There is a lot of anger among farmers," he said. "We don't get even the minimum support price that is presently declared -- removing these protections and making it easier for corporates to enter will completely buy us out."


Why it's such a hot political issue

Agriculture is the primary source of livelihood for about 58% of India's 1.3 billion population, meaning farmers are the biggest voter block in the country.

That's made farming a central political issue, with farmers arguing for years to get the minimum guaranteed prices increased.

In a bid to win over farmers, Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said in its 2014 general election manifesto that all crop prices should be fixed at a minimum of 50% higher than the production costs. In 2016, Modi promised to boost the country's agriculture sector with a target of doubling the income of farmers by 2022.

Modi and his government continue to insist that they are supporting farmers.

He hailed the new laws as a "watershed moment" which will ensure a complete transformation of the agriculture sector. But besides calling the move long overdue, Modi has not said why he opted to introduce these measures during the pandemic, which has caused India to suffer its first recession in decades.

"The Indian government under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi has always stood in full commitment to resolving the problems faced by farmers and will continue to stand by them," said Narendra Singh Tomar, the Minister of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare.

Tomar urged farmers to abandon their protests and instead discuss their issues with the government -- although so far, Modi has shown no sign of capitulating to protesters' demands.

© Manish Rajput/SOPA Images/Shutterstock 

Farmers gather near a police road block stopping them from marching to New Delhi during a demonstration on November 30, 2020.

NFU stands in solidarity with Indian farmers protesting new agricultural laws

DECEMBER 6, 2020
FOOD SOVEREIGNTY INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY

The National Farmers Union stands in solidarity with farmers in India, who continue to protest new agricultural laws formally passed in September. This agriculture reform will effectively undermine the guaranteed prices farmers receive through government purchase of staple crops and open them up to exploitation by large corporations. Tens of thousands of Indian farmers are protesting, demanding that these reforms be rescinded or that a new law be introduced to guarantee them a minimum price for their crops. “We in Canada recognize the Indian farmers’ struggle as similar to our own struggle. We support them in their right to protest, and in their call for agriculture policy that supports the millions of smallholder farmers growing food in India,” said NFU President Katie Ward.


As shrinking net farm incomes reach a crisis level for farmers around the world and also in Canada, Canadian farmers understand the need for government regulation that works for farmers rather than for those who take profits at the expense of farmers. “We have experienced the dismantling of institutions that were vital to the bargaining power and, by extension, incomes of Canadian farmers,” said NFU Vice-President Stewart Wells, “For example the loss of the single desk marketing system for hogs in the 1990’s and more recently the destruction of the Canadian Wheat Board, among others.”

As a result of losing the single-desk marketing system for hogs, thousands of Canadian farmers could no longer raise hogs because they could not access the market without a contract. The intentional shift to corporate hog production has left that sector fully vertically integrated and dominated by only three meat processing corporations. Prices are regularly below the cost of the production. The industry is heavily dependent on government safety nets to ride out the highly volatile market. It is an industry now largely devoid of family farmers. The change in hog farming in Canada was swift and brutal for family farmers raising hogs – a direct result of agriculture policy aimed at assisting corporations instead of farmers.


While the circumstances of Indian farmers are vastly different than Canadian farmers in many ways, it is clear that agricultural policies that serve to undercut farmers’ livelihoods to make room for large corporations to profit will have devastating consequences for the millions of smallholder farmers and their families.

India’s food security is threatened, as the new laws will shift its agricultural economy from “food production” for people to “commodity production” for trade and export. Farmers take on more debt and risk in a system of contract farming. The new laws will lift the ban on hoarding food by corporate buyers, which will allow them to capitalize on ups and downs in production by price-gouging consumers during shortages and depressing prices to farmers in times of abundance.


“Farmers did not ask for this reform, and it is not in their interest. The impacts will be devastating and far-reaching. Canada’s NFU supports Indian farmers in their opposition to these reforms,” Ward stated, “We object to the suppression of democratic protest taking place in India this week. We stand with Indian farmers, and their right to protect their livelihoods by protesting the imposition of these unjust laws.”

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Backgrounder to NFU statement in solidarity with Indian farmers

DECEMBER 8, 2020
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY

Why are India’s farmers protesting?

India has 164 million farmers, and many have small farms where they grow food to feed themselves and sell locally to feed their communities. Over half of India’s workforce is involved in the agriculture sector. Hundreds of thousands of farmers are protesting impending changes that will result from three controversial laws. Farm leaders have been in talks with government, demanding that these laws be repealed. Tens of thousands of farmers are in New Delhi itself, and more camped out around the city, blocking entrances. Protests are occurring all across India, with the support of non-farmers in other sectors such as transport. On December 8, the farmers called for a peaceful national general strike in support of their demands.

New laws passed in September set to go into effect in December

In June 2020 the Indian Cabinet put forward three controversial agriculture reform bills in conjunction with its suite of COVID 19 measures. In September, these bills – The Farmers (Empowerment & Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, The Essential Commodities Act (Amendment) Bill and Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill – were passed by the Indian Parliament in a rushed process, without allowing for extended debate or careful examination by a committee. The final vote was conducted by voice rather than ballot, making it impossible to have a clear count of the votes. The bills will become law once they are approved by President Ram Nath Kovind, which is expected to happen in December.
The Bills

The Farmers (Empowerment & Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill – This bill allows for direct contracting between farmers and buyers prior to sowing, but does not require these contracts to be in writing, does not penalize companies that fail to register their contracts, and does not set a minimum price. The farmers can thus be left with no recourse if terms of the contracts are not fulfilled.

The Essential Commodities Act (Amendment) Bill – This bill removes all limits that have, until now, prevented companies from hoarding basic food items including cereals, pulses, oilseeds, edible oils, onions, and potatoes, even in the event of war, famine or natural disaster. This change was made at the request of food processing and food exporting corporations.

Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill – This bill deregulates trade by allowing farmers to sell outside of their own state’s Agricultural Produce and Livestock Market Committee (APMC) markets, and prevents states from collecting fees from the markets to fund their operation. This will allow corporations to set up their own, unregulated markets.

Implications for farmers

Direct contracting increases the power of buyers. To reduce costs of obtaining supplies, companies will purchase from the largest farms and/or look for the lowest prices. This will lead to small farms no longer having access to any market. As small farmers are forced out, land holdings will become larger and more concentrated. Vertical integration of farms with processing companies will accelerate this process, as risks and debts are offloaded onto the least powerful in the value chain.

As small farmers lose their land or are no longer able to survive on lower, deregulated prices they will be forced to leave villages and move to cities, where employment is uncertain. Small farmers produce food for themselves and communities. By shifting from public markets to corporate buyers who operate nationally, food will move towards to larger markets. There will be less food available locally and it will be more expensive.

Allowing corporations to hoard food empowers them to buy up supplies at low prices when there is a good harvest. It shifts the public “strategic reserve” meant to buffer volatility and prevent hardship and instead creates private control of the food supply. Companies will be allowed to export hoarded food, even in the event of natural disaster, war or famine in India.
The new laws create a positive environment for consolidation of farmland, concentration of ownership in agricultural companies, greater control of markets and prices by large processors, retailers and exporters, and increased sales of commercial seed, chemical inputs such as fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides, and digital technology for data mining, surveillance and automation.

Which powerful corporations stand to gain?

Some of the same multinational food, agribusiness and technology companies active in Canada are also active in India: including Bayer, BASF, Dow Dupont, Nestle, Coca Cola, Pespsi, Amazon, IBM and Microsoft. Some of the large agribusiness corporations are also Indian, such as Tata, Bharat Group, Atul, and Nuziveedu Seeds.

Why does this matter to Canadians?

If allowed to go into effect, these laws will increase the power of the world’s largest agribusiness corporations. It will embolden them to demand similar changes in other countries. The ability of large corporations to force down prices to Indian farmers and to demand adherence to corporate priorities as a condition of making a living will affect farmers around the world.

As Canadians and fellow farmers we recognize the harm that the Indian laws will do to Indian farmers and their families. We want to live in a world where human lives are respected, where people can democratically shape their future together, carry forward their food cultures intact, and have hope that our children will be able to live well as farmers if and when they choose to.

We are stronger when we act together, whether it is by marketing our products or standing up for our rights.

Tractor rally: India farmers lead massive protest on Republic Day


Mon., January 25, 2021

Farmers say they want the government to roll back controversial farm reforms

Tens of thousands of protesting farmers have begun driving into capital Delhi on tractors on India's Republic Day.

They have been striking for months at the city's borders, demanding a roll back of recent market-friendly reforms.

They have been allowed to go ahead with the tractor rally on the condition that it will not disturb the official celebrations on Tuesday.

The government has offered to put the reforms on hold, but farmers say they want a repeal.

The rally was expected to begin from six entry points to Delhi and police barricaded all of them - farm groups were told to enter the city only after the Republic Day parade was over.

But farm groups at two different borders - Singhu and Tikri - have reportedly broken through barricades and and have begun their march, on foot and in tractors.

They have not been allowed in central Delhi where official celebrations are taking place. The annual parade involves armed forces showcasing their latest equipment and floats from several states presenting their culture on a national stage. The parade is shorter and more muted this year due to the pandemic.

Tractors carrying groups of farmers travelled to the city in the past few days, in addition to thousands that were already blocking several entrance points for more than a month.

How Narendra Modi misread the mood of India's angry farmers

India farmers: The viral image that defines a protest

Tuesday's rally is the latest episode in a months-long protest, one of the longest farmers' protest India has ever seen.

The laws, which seek to further open up agriculture to the free market, sparked protests even as they made their way through parliament in September. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party-led government defended the reforms, farmer groups likened them to a 'death warrant' that made them vulnerable to corporate companies.

The stand-off continued as tens of thousands of farmers from the northern states of Punjab and Haryana marched to Delhi in late November and began sit-ins at the border, many of which still continue.
What exactly do the laws propose?

Taken together, the laws loosen rules around sale, pricing and storage of farm produce - rules that have protected India's farmers from the free market for decades.

One of the biggest changes is that farmers will be allowed to sell their produce at a market price directly to private players - agricultural businesses, supermarket chains and online grocers.

More than 90% of India's farmers already sell their produce in the market - and only about 6% of them actually receive assured prices for their crops, guaranteed by the government.

Many farmers sell produce at large wholesale markets or mandis

But farmers are mainly concerned that this will eventually lead to the end of government-controlled wholesale markets (mandis) and assured prices, leaving them with no back-up option. That is, if they are not satisfied with the price offered by a private buyer, they cannot return to the mandi or use it as a bargaining chip during negotiations.

Most of the protesting farmers are from Punjab and Haryana, where the two biggest crops, wheat and rice, are still sold at assured prices in mandis.
Are these reforms necessary?

Most economists and experts agree that Indian agriculture desperately needs reform. But critics of the government say it failed to follow a consultative process and did not take farmers' unions into confidence before passing the laws.

For one, the bills were put to a hurried a voice vote in parliament, leaving little time for debate, which infuriated the opposition. And state governments, which play a crucial role in enacting such legislation, also appear to have been left out of the loop.

Hundreds of women farmers have joined the protests

Experts also point out that the reforms fail to take into account that agriculture still remains a mainstay in the Indian economy.

More than half of Indians work on farms, but the sector accounts for barely a sixth of the country's GDP. Declining productivity and a lack of modernisation have shrunk incomes and hobbled agriculture in India for decades. The government, meanwhile, provides farmers with generous subsidies, exempts them from income tax and crop insurance, guarantees a minimum price for 23 crops and regularly waives off debts.

"Now the government is saying, we will get out of the way, and asking us to deal directly with big businesses. But we didn't demand this in the first place! So why are they doing this to us?" Rakesh Vyas, a farmer, told BBC's Soutik Biswas recently.

Experts say any attempt to dismantle decades-old concessions must happen through dialogue because fear and suspicion will only derail the process.