Farmers’ Strike In Maharashtra: The Calm Before The Storm?

It was business as usual in Navi Mumbai’s APMC Market on Thursday. Housewives shopped for vegetables at the subzi mandi and office-goers stepped out to buy Alphonso mangoes – perhaps the last batch of the season.

But these scenes at wholesale markets in Mumbai won’t be the same, if the state’s farmers continue to protest for the next seven days. Thursday was the first day of an agitation by Maharashtra’s farmers, whose key demands include a farm loan waiver and higher prices for their crops.

Early this morning, protesting farmers stopped trucks and vans transporting vegetables, fruits and milk to cities such as Mumbai, Pune and Aurangabad, and dumped the contents on the road.

The fear is that such scenes might become commonplace if the Maharashtra government doesn’t reach an accord soon with the state’s irate agrarian community.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said his government is trying to resolve the issue at the earliest. "We are trying to hold talks with farmers' leaders and resolve their issues. We will continue to hold talks. The government is positive about some of their demands and we have even started taking action on some points," wire agency PTI quoted him saying.

A committee of finance department secretary and bank officials has been formed to suggest ways to help farmers within seven days, the chief minister said.

As for agitating farmers stopping supplies of vegetables, fruit and milk to the cities, Fadnavis asserted political workers were involved in the matter.

"Farmers are being used and instigated by vested interests. Certain political parties are trying to gain advantage with this strike. Farmers' goods are being stopped from being transported, they are not being allowed to sell their produce. All this is being done by members of certain political parties," he said.

"The people whose 'Sangharsh Yatra' did not get good response are now instigating farmers. The strike took place in Pune, Nashik, Ahmednagar and there were incidents of stone- pelting too. Farmers won't indulge in violence. This is being done by political leaders," the chief minister said, referring to NCP-Congress' Sangharsh Yatra for loan waiver last month.

Protesters in Satara, Kolhapur and Nashik districts tried to disrupt supply of milk and vegetables to Mumbai earlier in the day. Other districts which witnessed these protests were Ahmednagar, Sangli, Solapur and Nanded. These districts happen to be some of the top suppliers of food and dairy produce to wholesale markets in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra.

BloombergQuint spoke to wholesalers at Vashi’s APMC market who seem unperturbed on Thursday, but conceded that things could get tough in the next 24 hours, if protesters continued to stop supplies from entering the city.

Vasudev, a middle aged man who sells only chilies and ginger at the market said, “Today, business was good. In the next couple of days, we are scared that the market will shut down and we will lose a lot of money because we have to pay for rent and labour and are forced to jack up prices and face the wrath of the price-conscious buyer.”

But Vasudev’s partner, Rajesh believes the market will function on Friday. “The connected people will manage to get their supplies into the city and sell it to us, and we will continue to work,” he said.

And while many of the vendors don’t agree with the means of the protesters, they seem to empathise with the ends. Manoj, a tomato seller said that protesters shouldn’t have wasted gallons of milk on the streets, but he and his peers pointed out that the government has to step up and act in the interest of farmers.