DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Images of thousands of farmers entering the capital of India on tractors and carrying banners to criticize potentially devastating changes in agricultural policy may seem a distant world, but protests in New Delhi raise questions that resonate in the United States and led to dramatic changes in rural America.
Indian farmers left their homes to march through 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-run markets. Despite decades of economic growth, up to half of India’s population depends on farming on small plots of land, usually less than 3 acres, and farmers fear that, without guaranteed prices, they will be forced to sell their land and lose their livelihood. life.
The dispute raises questions not only about agriculture, but also about the declining rural population in India, where small communities are already struggling to survive – a problem that is reflected in parts of the United States
“These protests went well beyond the bills because it turned into a broader conversation about the soul of rural India, which is very familiar to us in the Midwest,” said Andrew Flachs, professor of anthropology at Purdue University who has extensively studied the experiences of cotton producers in India. “We are always talking about the spirit of American agrarianism and the soul of rural America, and that changed to a conversation about the same dynamic in India.”
The images of farmers marching through New Delhi resemble 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 caused interest rates to rise as demand for their products declined, leading to falling land values.
In Iowa – one of the hardest hit states – there were about 500 farm auctions a month in 1983, 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 Iowa farm. As Protestants in India feared, American farmers have lost their livelihood and sense of identity.
“We were just trying to stay alive,” said Juchems, who later managed to continue farming thanks to his in-laws. “That’s what you work for your whole life and then it’s over.”
The rural economies of the Midwest, which had been in decline for decades, were devastated by the agricultural crisis. But while many surviving farmers have emerged more prosperous, communities close to them have continued to struggle. The researchers fear that the same could happen in India if New Delhi refuses to repeal the law that favors corporate agriculture.
After the crisis, many Americans in rural areas managed to adapt, moving to cities and finding jobs, but social anthropologist Aninhalli Vasavi, from Bengaluru, said Indian farmers had few options. Even when economic reality forces them to leave their rural homes, they often struggle in urban areas.
“India does not have a substantial industrial base to absorb the large population in lucrative industrial or urban jobs,” said Vasavi by email. “Instead, a large number of rural migrants are ‘adversely integrated’ into the urban and low-cost construction economy.”
The challenges facing India are common to many developing countries in Asia, where agricultural land has been swallowed up, usually for factories and property development, leaving legions of farmers without adequate compensation and deprived of their livelihood.
In countries like Myanmar, Cambodia and China, many end up on the outskirts of rapidly industrializing cities, finding low-paying jobs in services such as massage parlors and delivery services that do not provide social or security benefits.
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 – dubbed the Green Revolution – in the 1960s and managed to increase production and reduce widespread hunger.
Even though the many small plots make India less productive than in the US, researchers say Indian farmers are good stewards of their land and avoid some of the environmental consequences seen in US agriculture, such as runoff of fertilizers. and soil depletion.
Peggy Barlett, professor of anthropology at Emory University who studies agriculture and rural life, said that while a boost to industrial agriculture may seem obvious to Americans accustomed to large-scale agriculture, it makes less sense in India, where there is a lot of work, but less money for expensive farm equipment.
As more attention is paid to the role of agriculture in climate change, US farmers will also be confronted more in the coming years with the environmental cost of petroleum-based fertilizers, rather than relying on frequently used organic methods in small properties, said Barlett.
Ohio State University researcher Andrea Rissing said there was an increase in the number of young Americans growing vegetables on some acres, in some ways more like India than the midwestern United States. These small properties meet an increasing demand for fresh, locally grown products.
Rissing said that many of his students have no choice but to think small because agricultural land is very expensive, but they are also attracted by non-mechanized agriculture that improves soils and limits runoff to water courses. Others are building food centers to market their vegetables locally, instead of sending them to national and international markets, as is typical of large-scale agriculture in the United States.
It is the type of agriculture that Rissing prefers, but she recognizes: “Agriculture is difficult. It is difficult for small farmers and also for large producers of corn and soy ”.
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Associated Press business writer Elaine Kurtenbach of Bangkok contributed to this report.