NEW DELHI (AP) — Representatives of the Indian government and tens of thousands of protesting farmers have failed to make progress in their eighth round of talks over the farmers’ demand that new agricultural reform laws be scrapped.
The agriculture minister offered to amend any flaws in the three laws but refused to repeal them, prompting the farmers to continue their 44-day-old blockade of highways linking the capital with the country’s north.
Farmers fear the government will stop buying grain at minimum guaranteed prices under the new laws and that corporations will then push prices down.