Noted environmental and social activist Vandana Shiva today joined a group of farmers protesting against farmer suicides and alleged that agro- chemical companies were pushing them into spiralling debt.
Around 200 farmers, led by Azadi Bachao Andolan, said that the government should focus on the promotion of traditional agriculture and discourage use of chemicals.
"Indian farmers are being exploited by the agro-chemical companies through their high cost seeds, chemical pesticides and failed yields. The farmers of India have been pushed into a debt trap and finally into suicides," Shiva said.
The farmers raised slogans against several companies in this sector accusing them of pushing farmers into debt and polluting land and water of rural areas with carcinogenic substances.
"The only way we have now to save rural India is to revive traditional methods of agriculture and fight for a healthy food sovereign organic India," Shiva asserted.
