Name the features of New Farmer’s Movements.

New Farmer’s Movements was started in Punjab and Tamil Nadu in the 1970s. This movement was a non-party movement involved farmers (not peasants) who basically were market-involved, i.e., working as both commodity producers and purchasers.

The features of New Farmer’s Movements were as follows:

• The basic principle of this movement was to strongly believe in anti-state and anti-urban.

• Their main focus is to demand which was related to ‘price and related issues’. For example - price procurement, remunerative prices, prices for agricultural inputs, taxation, non-repayment of loans, etc.

• Blocking roads and railways, refusing politicians and bureaucrats entry to villages were some of the activities of the New Farmer’s Movements.

• New Farmer’s Movements became part of the ‘new social movements’ as it also focused on the environment and women’s based issues. This movement helped them to expand their area of influence and to focus on their ideology.