New Delhi: Indian farmers will hold another round of talks with the government to help end a dispute over crop prices after almost a week of protests by tens of thousands of growers in the north of the country.
The farmers have been massing at the Punjab-Haryana border since Feb 12, prevented from marching toward Delhi by police barricades of barbed wire and metal barriers. Tear gas and water cannons have been used to disperse the crowds.
Farmer groups want guaranteed prices for their crops, which they say the government promised to consider after similar protests ended in 2021. They’re also demanding debt relief.
Talks with the government on Feb 15 didn’t end the impasse and more talks were scheduled yesterday. Farmer leaders said after last Thursday’s meeting that both sides had agreed to continue peacefully as they work toward a solution.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is so far holding its ground against the farmers’ demands, wary of seeing a repeat of the protests of 2020 and 2021 that forced it to repeal agricultural reform laws.
With elections just a few months away, Modi is in a strong position to return to office for a third term.
India is the world’s second-largest grower of rice, wheat, sugar and cotton, and relies on hundreds of millions of small growers for these crops, each owning less than five acres of land.
Over the years, the prices farmers earn at state-run wholesale markets for their crops have fallen short of their expectations. — Bloomberg
