Farmers in India plan to resume marching to New Delhi after one dies in clash with police
Semafor Signals
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Insights from the BBC, The Economic Times, and the United Nations
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Indian farmers marching on New Delhi resumed protesting against the government after violent clashes with police left one 21-year-old farmer dead following several rounds of failed talks with officials over demands for guaranteed crop prices. Some burned effigies of India’s interior minister and Modi while chanting slogans.
Tens of thousands of farmers hailing mostly from the northern states of Punjab and Haryana began their “Delhi Chalo” march towards the Indian capital last week, but were stopped 125 miles from New Delhi by police firing tear gas.
The protests are a continuation of similar demonstrations that happened in 2021, which saw hundreds of thousands of farmers successfully force Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to backtrack on laws meant to overhaul India’s agricultural economy, saying it would hurt their incomes.
Protest leaders said they would pause their march until Feb. 29, according to the Indian Express, and police in New Delhi remain on high alert, setting up barricades of cement, barbed wire, and shipping containers on key highways to block the entry of tractors. Internet service was also restored in some areas in India on Sunday after authorities blocked connection in response to the protests.
SIGNALS
Guaranteed crop prices can help farmers, but lead directly to inflation
India’s farmers want the government to set guaranteed prices — known as minimum support prices (MSP) — for 23 crops, a policy they say will shore up their precarious livelihoods, but economists say can lead to inflation and other unintended consequences.
The Indian government currently buys rice and wheat to distribute publicly, offering a minimum support price for the grains. Farmers say that bringing other crops such as corn, cotton, and pulses (a type of legume) under the regime would help sustain incomes in the agricultural sector, which around half of India’s population depend for their livelihoods. “It’s a market intervention that makes sure that farmers have this other option,” one development economist who is supportive of the policy told Al Jazeera.
However, many economists “hate the MSP and its effects on farming,” The New York Times reported. Divorcing the price of staple crops from the fluctuations of the market can lead directly to food inflation, and in the case of rice, have incentivized overproduction in semi-arid areas, depleting water resources.
Climate change and desertification are already hurting India’s farmers
The protests come at a time when Indian farmers are facing acute challenges brought about by climate change and increased urgency to diversify crops. Groundwater in the state of Punjab, known as the breadbasket of India for its fertile wheat and rice farms, has dried up faster than it can be replenished, and much of the region has turned into desert. Rainwater has become erratic, canal water levels have decreased, and incomes have taken a hit, according to an article published by the United Nations. One rice cultivator told the UN that if farmers receive incentives to plant other crops, they “will need no convincing.” An editorial in India’s Economic Times newspaper argued that the most pressing concern for India’s farmers was not how to get more government support, but how to “forge a consensus on the long-term solutions for Punjab’s agriculture, which stares at a waterless future.”
