Why are angry farmers protests blocking highways from India to Europe?

Farmers in India and across Europe are taking to the streets in protest over issues including the impact of Russia’s war in Ukraine, rising competition and climate change mitigation.

For weeks, Karan Singh camped in a makeshift tent some 180 miles from India's capital, New Delhi. 

Singh and five other farmers from his village in the western state of Punjab have been living on their own supplies, including a gas cylinder and raw produce they packed from their farms when they drove down in a tractor to join thousands more in a mounting campaign to pressure the government to raise crop prices.

“I am drowning in debt,” said Singh, who mainly farms wheat and rice on his 10-acre plot of land. “We are utilizing our farms as much as we can. There’s no lack of production, but we are not able to get any fair price for it.”

Tractors have been rolling down highways not just in India but across Europe — where issues including the impact of Russia’s war in Ukraine, climate change and efforts to fight it as well as rising competition have driven angry farmers to the streets of Paris, Brussels and beyond.

Tractors block roads around the Arc de Triomphe in Paris on March 1.Remon Haazen / Getty ImagesWhile the specific factors fueling the anger vary from country to country, the result is largely the same: Farmers say governments need to take drastic action if their way of life is to survive. And the timing is no coincidence, experts say, with protesters seeking favorable policies in a year with a record number of elections around the globe.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/farmers-protests-india-europe-ukraine-war-grain-prices-rcna143816

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