NEW DELHI: Indian farmers plan to march on the capital New Delhi on Wednesday as they press their demands for higher crop prices, a protest leader said after several rounds of failed talks.
The presidents of agricultural unions are looking for guarantees of state support or minimum purchase prices for farm production.
“Farmers from all over the country will come to Delhi on March 6 by train, bus and air,” protest leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal told reporters.
According to him, farmers will also block railway lines across the country on March 10.
Protests began in early February with hundreds of farmers in Punjab aiming to take the campaign to Delhi. They were blocked by police and paramilitary forces in Shambhu, on the border with neighboring Haryana state, about 200 km (125 mi) from the capital.
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The government announces support prices for more than 20 crops every year, but state authorities buy only rice and wheat at the support level, benefiting only about 6% of farmers who grow these two crops.
In 2021, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration scrapped the farm laws, the government said it would set up a panel of growers and government officials to find ways to ensure support prices for all farm produce.
