Tractors back in Delhi as Indian farm exports fall
Three years after massive protests to halt Modi's market liberalisations, Indian farmers are back in the capital to protest at the government's “broken promises”, demanding once again guaranteed minimum prices and loan waivers for small farmers who risk going out of business.
Milan (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Tens of thousands of farmers across India have been protesting for days to demand guaranteed crop prices, exposing a weak point of Narendra Modi's government a few weeks before India’s general elections.
The Hindu nationalist prime minister was behind three bills in 2020 designed to open up agriculture as part of his vision to modernise the country.
Farmers baulked at the idea of limiting the possibility of storing production in government warehouses, selling the foodstuffs directly to public agencies.
The farmers saw this move as made for the country's large business groups, which would then be able to enter the sector massively. After months of protests, the government had to give in, dropping all three bills.
Now farmers are back on their tractors and trucks, from Haryana and Punjab to Delhi. Despite police barriers, they are threatening to drive into the capital on Sunday if the government does not heed their demands.
In their view, Modi's government has not kept all the promises it had made three years ago: guaranteed crop prices, doubling farmers' incomes, loan waivers.
Specifically, they call for legislation that guarantees minimum prices at least for certain products. More generally, they complain that production costs have risen in recent years while their incomes have stagnated.
The new wave of protests comes just as India’s farming sector shows discouraging results.
According to a report published by the New Indian Express newspaper, the country's agricultural exports have been steadily declining over the past three years even though it has expanded the number of countries it exports fresh produce to, from 102 to 111 in the past year.
The report highlights that even exports by the Agricultural Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) “have sharply declined from 24% to 11%.”
APEDA is responsible for export promotion of a few selected agriculture products.
“In terms of value, the total exports in APEDA’s product-value declined to .88 billion in April-December 2023 from .68 billion in April-December 2022,” the newspaper writes.
“Total agri-export value reduced to .99 billion in FY2023 from .63 billion during the same period a year ago.”
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