SKM Demands Rollback of Proposed India-US Trade Pact

Key Points:

• Farmer group hands memorandum to president via deputy commissioner
• Body warns cheap US farm imports will hurt local growers
• Organization threatens nationwide agitation if demands ignored

JAMSHEDPUR – Farmers under the banner of the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha staged a protest here on Wednesday against the proposed trade agreement between India and the United States. The East Singhbhum unit of the organization submitted a memorandum addressed to the president through the deputy commissioner’s office.

The farmer body alleged that the pact threatens the interests of cultivators, laborers and ordinary citizens. It further warned that implementing the deal would trigger a serious crisis for the country’s agricultural sector.

According to the memorandum, the proposed agreement envisions steep cuts or a complete removal of import duties on American industrial and farm goods. The group said this would let US wheat, rice, corn, pulses, soybeans, dairy items, fruits, dried nuts, cotton and poultry products enter Indian markets at low prices. Farmers, it argued, would then struggle to secure fair returns for their own produce.

However, the organization argued that India’s farm economy cannot be compared with that of the United States. Only about two percent of the American population works in agriculture, and those farmers receive substantial government subsidies. Meanwhile, most Indian farmers are small and marginal cultivators already burdened by rising costs, debt and low crop prices.

The body also blamed existing policies for a continuous rise in the prices of fertilizer, seeds, diesel and pesticides, which it said has pushed up cultivation costs. Opening the domestic market further to foreign agricultural goods, the group contended, would leave Indian farmers economically weaker still.

In addition, similar demands over farm distress and government policy have previously been raised by other groups in the state, including protests led by the state government’s critics. Officials from the local civic body reportedly received a copy of the appeal as well.

The Sanyukt Kisan Morcha urged the president to reconsider the trade agreement and ensure it is not implemented at the cost of farmers’ and workers’ interests. It cautioned that if the government disregards the farmers’ demands, a large-scale movement will be launched across the country.

Besides Wednesday’s protest, agricultural officials in the district, including those involved in local farming initiatives, have in the past engaged with similar grievances raised by cultivator groups. Moreover, the demand echoes past agitations such as one where a local body had earlier pressed for a separate set of demands from the state administration.

The proposed India-US trade agreement has also drawn attention at the national level, with the central government yet to make its final position public on the matter concerning Jamshedpur and other districts where farmer groups have voiced similar concerns.