FATEHPUR, India (AP) – Ram Singh Patel’s day begins at 6 a.m., when he enters his farmland next to a railway line. He labors for hours on the farm, where he grows chili peppers, onions, garlic, tomatoes and papayas. Sometimes his wife, two sons, and two daughters come with him to lend a hand or have lunch with him.
Once home after sunset, he packs the cultivated crops in jute bags and cardboard boxes, ready to be driven with a trailer to a nearby wholesale market where the produce is sold.
This is the daily life of Patel, a 55-year-old generation farmer in Uttar Pradesh, the heart of India. Life is laborious and repetitive, but it is one of an unknown hero who, like millions of other smallholders, grows grain to feed India’s ever-growing population of over 1.3 billion people.
But lately, Patel has been a worried man. His earnings have started to decline. His children don’t want to work on the farm. And he fears that new agricultural laws introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government will favor large corporations that will push prices down and make family businesses unprofitable, ultimately leaving millions like him landless.
“The farmers will survive this attack in every way possible,” said Patel, who supports Modi but opposes the new laws. “But the future generations will have no food because there will be no one to grow the grain. What does the prime minister eat? “
Often referred to as ‘annadatta’ or ‘suppliers’, India’s legendary farmers have long been seen as the heart and soul of a country where the agricultural sector supports more than half the people. But farmers have also seen their economic influence diminish over the past three decades. Once they accounted for a third of India’s gross domestic product, now they represent only 15% of the country’s $ 2.9 trillion economy.
Their concerns are heightened by the new laws that have sparked widespread anger among farmers. Tens of thousands of them have besieged New Delhi, the capital, for nearly a month, settling cravings with supplies of food and fuel that can last for weeks. They have threatened not to leave until their demands to abolish the laws have been met.
The government says the new laws bring much-needed reform for the agricultural sector. It has tried to calm the angry farmers, but several rounds of talks to get them to end the protests have failed.
Many of the protesting farmers come from the northern states of Punjab and Haryana, two of the largest agricultural states in India. But the rumble has now started to grow in other states as well.
“Modi’s government is for the wealthy,” Patel said. “His government enforces these laws on us when we didn’t even ask for them.”
The laws have exacerbated existing resentment among farmers, who often complain that they are being ignored by the government.
“The general public is against these laws,” said Patel. “I don’t understand why the Prime Minister doesn’t listen to them.”