THOUSANDS of farmers dismantled tent cities and packed their belongings in India today, as they head home from the outskirts of Delhi after a year-long protest against agriculture policies.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had, in a rare retreat last month, announced and pushed the repeal of three contentious laws that farmers claim will let private companies control the agriculture sector in the country.

Hundreds of farmers celebrated and danced the victory early today, as they removed roadblocks and dismantled thousands of makeshift homes along major highways.

The farmers have political heft due to their sheer numbers – tens of thousands had camped out to protest against the laws in the biggest challenge to the Modi government since it came to power in 2014.

Protesters had initially refused to leave the sites despite the repeal of the laws, pressing other demands, including a legal guarantee for minimum benchmark rates for their produce.

The government said it will form a commission on fixing minimum prices for crops and promised to stop prosecuting farmers for burning crop stubble that is blamed for polluting the air every winter in Delhi.

It also agreed to pay compensation to the families of more than 700 farmers who died during the demonstrations and withdraw criminal cases lodged against protesters during the year-long campaign.

The three agricultural laws were passed in September last year, aimed at deregulating farm produce markets from state control and allowing private companies to enter the sector – on which two-thirds of the more than 1.3 billion population rely for a living.

The government said the laws are a necessary reform, but farmers opposed them, saying it will leave them at the mercy of big corporations.

Farmers started local protests in northern Punjab and Haryana – the breadbasket states of India – before tens of thousands headed to New Delhi to press their demands.

But they were violently stopped by police at the borders, triggering a year-long impasse that saw authorities erect concrete and steel barricades and metal spikes to stop their advance. – AFP, December 11, 2021.