DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Images of thousands of farmers circling the Indian capital with tractors and carrying banners denouncing potentially devastating changes in agricultural policy may seem like a distant world, but protests in New Delhi they pose problems that resonate in the United States and have brought about dramatic changes in rural America.
Indian farmers have left home to leave for New Delhi in a desperate effort to force the repeal of laws they believe would end guaranteed prices and force them to sell to powerful corporations rather than government markets. Despite decades of economic growth, up to half of India’s population depends on growing small plots of land, usually less than three hectares, and farmers worry that without guaranteed prices they will be forced to sell their land. lands and to lose their livelihood.
The dispute raises questions not only about agriculture, but about declining populations in rural India, where small communities are already struggling to survive, an issue reflected in parts of the U.S.
“These protests have gone far beyond the laws because this has become a broader conversation about the soul of rural India, which is something very familiar to those of us in the Midwest,” Andrew Flachs said. , a professor of anthropology at Purdue University who thoroughly studied the experiences of cotton growers in India. “We always talk about the spirit of American agrarianism and the soul of rural America, and that has become a conversation of the same dynamics in India.”
Images of peasants marching through New Delhi recall similar scenes in Washington, DC, during the agricultural crisis of the late 1970s and early 1980s, when hundreds of trucks and tractors flooded the national mall. Thousands of farmers lost their land, in part because of government policies that led to rising interest rates as demand for their products fell, leading to a fall in land values. .
In Iowa, one of the hardest hit states, in 1983 there were about 500 agricultural auctions a month, when families had no choice but to sell.
Decades later, those memories remain fresh for Rick Juchems, whose parents had to sell his 640-acre farm in Iowa. Just as those protesting in India feared, American farmers lost their livelihoods and their sense of identity.
“We were just trying to stay alive,” said Juchems, who was later able to continue cultivating thanks to his in-laws. “That’s why you work your whole life and then it’s gone.”
The rural economies of the Midwest that had been in decline for decades were devastated by the agricultural crisis. But while many surviving farmers came out more prosperous, nearby communities continued to struggle. Researchers fear the same could happen in India if New Delhi refuses to repeal the law that favors corporate agriculture.
After the crisis, many rural Americans were able to adapt, move to cities and find work, but Aninhalli Vasavi, a social anthropologist based in India, said farmers in India have few options. Although economic realities force them to leave their rural homes, they often struggle in urban areas.
“India has not had a substantial industrial base to absorb the large population in paid industrial or urban occupation,” Vasavi said by email. “In contrast, a large number of rural migrants are ‘negatively integrated’ into the urban economy and low-end construction.”
The challenges facing India are common to many developing countries in Asia, where farmland has been swallowed up, often for factories and real estate development, leaving legions of farmers without adequate compensation and without their means of subsistence.
In countries like Myanmar, Cambodia, and China, many end up outside cities that are rapidly industrializing and find low-paying jobs in service jobs, such as massages and delivery services that offer no social benefits or security.
Vasavi and others are also concerned about the environmental consequences of the shift from labor-intensive agriculture in India to large-scale family farming in the United States. This agriculture is not new in India, which implemented aspects of industrial agriculture, called the Green Revolution. in the 1960s and managed to increase production and reduce widespread hunger.
While the numerous small plots make India less productive than the United States, researchers say Indian farmers are good stewards of their lands and avoid some of the environmental consequences observed in the United States. American agriculture, such as fertilizer runoff. and soil depletion.
Peggy Barlett, an anthropology professor at Emory University who studies agriculture and rural life, said that while a boost to industrial agriculture may seem obvious to Americans accustomed to farming in large scale, makes less sense in India, where there is a lot of labor but less money for expensive agricultural equipment.
As more attention is paid to the role of agriculture in climate change, American farmers will also face more in the coming years on the environmental cost of oil-based fertilizers, rather than relying on organic methods. which are frequently used on small farms, Barlett said.
Ohio State University researcher Andrea Rissing said there has been an increase in young Americans growing vegetables on a few acres, in some ways more like in India than in the Midwest. . These small farms meet a growing demand for fresh locally produced produce.
Rissing said many of his students have no choice but to think small because farmland is very expensive, but they are also attracted to non-mechanized agriculture that improves soils and limits runoff to waterways. Others are building food centers to market their vegetables locally, rather than shipping them to domestic and foreign markets, as is typical of large-scale agriculture in the U.S.
It’s the kind of agriculture Rissing prefers, but she acknowledges, “Agriculture is tough. It is difficult for small farmers and also for large farmers of corn and soybeans.
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Associated Press business writer Elaine Kurtenbach in Bangkok contributed to this report.