Karnataka: Farmers ask Union govt to exit WTO

MYSURU: Members of Karnataka State Sugarcane Growers Association and Farmers Federation held a protest against the Union government in the city on Sunday urging the policy makers of the nation to exit the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
They held a protest extending support to the nationwide protest calls given by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha demanding that the agreement against the interests of farmers and in favour of corporate industrialists with WTO be discontinued by the Union government.
As WTO is against providing minimum support price, opening procurement centres and continuing subsidies and incentives for farmers, India must come out of WTO, they demanded.
Addressing the protesters, association president Kurubur Shanthakumar said that over four lakh distressed farmers committed suicide across the country due to crop failure, inability to get decent prices for the food crops.
The Indian agriculture system is under the clutches of corporate industrialists and multinational companies due to the agreement with the WTO, he said.