Thousands of Indian farmers rally for better crop prices

MUMBAI, Mar 12 (AFP): Tens of thousands of Indian farmers protested in Mumbai on Monday after walking more than a hundred kilometres to demand better crop prices and land rights.

The farmers, wearing red caps and carrying red flags, arrived in the city following a six-day trek from Nashik, situated 165 kilometres (103 miles) north of India's financial capital.

Officials estimated that up to 30,000 demonstrators, including elderly women and young children, had gathered at Azad Maidan playing field in the south of Mumbai to press their demands.

"We have made arrangements including setting up of emergency medical facilities and potable drinking water," Tanaji Kamble, a spokesman for Mumbai's civic authority, told the news agency. The protesters want the state government of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital, to transfer forest land to tribal farmers who have been working it for years.

They also want to be paid one-and-a-half times the cost of producing their crops and are demanding that the government waives all farm loans.

The Maharashtra government has said it is willing to consider the demands and is due to meet farming leaders to try to reach a deal. Last year Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said his government would write off loans to farmers estimated to be worth around 305 billion rupees ($4.75 billion).

India has nearly 260 million farmers and farm labourers and more than half the population lives in rural areas, but agriculture accounts for just 17 per cent of its gross domestic product.

Maharashtra is one of India's most important agricultural states. In recent years it has suffered disappointing rains which led to crop failures.

More than 2,500 farmers killed themselves in the state in 2017, according to official figures.

A Reuters report adds: Tens of thousands of farmers from Maharashtra reached the state capital of Mumbai on Monday to protest what they called a lack of government support despite severe distress within the sector that employs the majority of the country's workforce.

The protestors walked 180 kilometres (112 miles) from Nashik to Mumbai over the course of a few days and plan to stage a sit-in protest outside the state legislative assembly building, where the annual budget session is underway.

The farmers are demanding waivers on agricultural loans in the aftermath of unseasonal rains that destroyed crops as also more support from the government, fair prices for crops and the transfer of forest lands to tribals, who have been tilling them for decades.

Road traffic was largely unaffected in the city as farmers reached south Mumbai on Sunday around midnight but police are on alert in case of possible traffic disruption later in the day.