US trying to impose agri policies on India: Farmers

The Apple Growers’ Union of the Panjai Primary Unit staged a protest at Panjai in Mandi district today against the visit of US Vice-President JD Vance to India. The growers also convened a meeting to raise concerns over India’s agricultural trade policies and what they called “unfair foreign pressure.”

The apple growers claimed that the US was attempting to impose its agricultural policies on India. While the US continued to levy a heavy import duty on Indian agricultural products, it was pressuring India to reduce tariffs on American produce, the union alleged.

The growers expressed frustration over the Indian Government’s recent decision to reduce import duties on horticultural products like apple from 70 per cent to 40 per cent. They argue d that this had made imported fruit cheaper and directly impacted the sales and livelihood of domestic apple growers. “Our apple cannot compete with the low prices of imported fruit. This move has severely disrupted the local market,” said Mahender Singh Rana, state Committee Member of the Apple Growers’ Union.

The protesters also condemned what they referred to as the opening of India’s agriculture sector to exploitative multinational corporations like Monsanto. “The government is allowing foreign corporations to exploit Indian agriculture under the guise of trade talks. We oppose this betrayal of our farmers,” said another union member.

Besides trade concerns, the meeting addressed other pressing issues such as illegal land evictions and unlawful deductions at vegetable markets. Farmers alleged that in many mandis (markets), they were being cheated with deductions of 8 kg to 10 kg per quintal of produce - a practice they described as “daylight robbery.”

To intensify their protest, the union announced a mass demonstration at Bali Chowki on April 29. Preparations for this protest would include mobilising support through village-level meetings in the coming days.

Ludra Mani, Prakash Chand, Yadunandan Rai, Omchand Deenanath and Roopchand attended the meeting. They all announhced support for the protest and condemned both Indian Government’s trade concessions and the influence of foreign corporate interests.

The Apple Growers’ Union vowed to continue its struggle against policies that undermine domestic agriculture and threaten the livelihood of Indian farmers.