Members of State Federation of Farmers and Sugarcane Cultivators Association staged a demonstration in the city on Sunday demanding India’s exit from the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
The demonstration was held heeding the strike call issued by Rashtriya Kisan Mahasangha and is part of a nation-wide agitation being conducted by farmers in support of their demands.
Kurubur Shanthakumar, president of Sugarcane Cultivators Association, who addressed the farmers said that ever since India became a member of WTO in 1995, agriculture has suffered and farmers have been pushed to the brink.
He said agriculture has ceased to be about food security and it was more about commerce and trade and has put a question mark on sustenance. Mr. Shanthakumar said more than 4 lakh farmers have committed suicide in India ever since agriculture became progressively unviable.
‘’Commercial and industrial scale farming is being encouraged under the WTO regime which has favoured large players including big business houses while farmers with small land holding have been pushed to the brink,” said Mr. Shanthakumar.
Linking the labour migration from agriculture to other industries to the policies that have been formulated under the WTO regime, Mr. Shanthakumar said there was farmers were abandoning agriculture and it was being taken over by corporate houses.
Hence the Rashtriya Kisan Mahasangh has called for a nation-wide strike demanding that India should withdraw from WTO. Mr. Shanthakumar said Government of India should conceive policies and initiate measures that will protect the interest of farmers with small landholdings who account for 70% of the agriculturists in the country.
The agitating farmers raised slogans against the government and the demonstration was held in the backdrop of the 12th Ministerial Conference of the WTO being held from June 12 to 15 at Geneva.
