Indian farmers block motorways and besiege Delhi in crop price protest

With national elections just months away, India has become the latest country to experience farmers' protests. Tens of thousands of growers marched towards the capital this week, blocking motorways and disrupting transport as they demanded higher crop prices.

Farmers wheeled trucks and tractors packed with food towards Delhi, meeting with tear gas from police.

The demonstrators said they were seeking guaranteed prices for crops, a doubling of farmers' income, loan waivers and withdrawal of charges against those involved in 16 months of protests in 2020-21.

Their key demand is a new law to guarantee a minimum support price (MSP) – the price below which farmers cannot be compelled to sell.

Unions say it will act as a safety net for farmers in India, the world's largest grower of pulses and cotton and the second biggest producer of rice and sugarcane.

But Information Minister Anurag Thakur said organisers were adding new conditions such as India's withdrawal from the World Trade Organization.

"If new demands are being added, more time is also required," he said as 200 unions kicked off their march on 12 February.

Agriculture Minister Arjun Munda described four rounds of inconclusive talks this week as "positive", despite warning of efforts to sabotage the meetings.

But protest organisers say they suspected the meetings to be a ploy to wear out farmers camping out in the cold on highways.

Political promises

Analysts say farm protests in EU countries such as Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Poland and Spain will spook India, where agriculture accounts for 15 percent of a 3.4-trillion-euro economy.

The South Asian nation, where more than 600 million people depend on agriculture, is set to hold elections this summer. The ruling BJP party is hoping for a third straight win.

"But no political party should dream of coming to power without our goodwill," declared Darshan Bansal, a protester from Punjab state.

Farm union leader Pushpendra Singh told a TV debate that the MSP must set the floor price of 23 staple crops. Below that price, he said, the government should commit to purchase from farmers and provide them with assured income amid market uncertainties.

"The government will buy as much as it needs but the rest will not be sold in the market below that price, so there is no question of it impacting the economy," argued fellow campaigner Rakesh Tikait.

Unions are demanding that the MSP be fixed 50 percent higher than production cost.

Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has promised to make it a legal right of farmers if he returned to power after the elections.

"This step will change the lives of 150 million farming families," Gandhi declared – though analysts pointed out his Congress party had trashed similar proposals when it was last in government.

Farmers united

In 2021, Modi repealed three new farm laws to end the protests by farmers who said the reforms would hurt their profits.

"A group of businesses are running governments. We must be alert," said Tikait as farm unions pressed for a nationwide shutdown.

The unions are also seeking waivers for unpaid electricity bills, pensions for farm hands and justice and cash for families of farmers killed in the 2021 agitation.

"Farmers will vote for whichever parties they want but they are united on our agitation," said Tikait.

"We will not budge."