Spice wars ahead for Indian farmers

'Trojan horse' laws handing power to global corporations

- by COLIN TODHUNTER

INDIA’S yearlong farmers’ protests in 2020 forced the repeal of pro-corporate farm laws – but it is clear that the government’s underlying agenda remains.

The repeal was little more than a tactical retreat. Today, the same agenda of corporatisation (recolonisation) has reared its ugly head through bureaucratic schemes, digital agriculture partnerships and policy frameworks. And all in the name of ‘efficiency’ and ‘modernisation’.

The book Food Dependency and Dispossession: Resisting the New World Order offers insights into India’s agrarian crisis, with multiple chapters and substantial sections analysing the impact of neoliberal policies, the green revolution and the farm laws.

In that book, I warned that corporate power would reassert itself following the repeal of the three pro-corporate farm laws. The book explored the true beneficiaries of the legislation, the motives of the powerful interests that demanded it and its far-reaching consequences for national sovereignty, farmers and the public.

In February 2022, when that book was published, I stated that repealing the three laws was ‘little more than a tactical manoeuvre... The powerful global interests behind these laws have not gone away... These interests have been behind a decades-long agenda to displace the prevailing agri-food system in India... The goal and underlying framework to capture and radically restructure the sector remains. The farmers’ struggle in India is not over.’

The Pradhan Mantri Dhan Dhaanya Krishi Yojana (PMDDKY) is now the government’s flagship ‘umbrella scheme’ for agriculture. According to reporting by The Wire, it merges 36 existing programmes across 11 ministries into a single centralised plan – to promote convergence and coordination.