BANGALORE, India (AFP) - Thousands of farmers staged a protest in India demanding rich nations slash their trade-distorting farm subsidies as the World Trade Organisation (WTO) conference got under way in Cancun.
Some 5,000 farmers, including men and women wearing green saris and scarves, Wednesday assembled at a park named after Indian freedom champion Mahatma Gandhi to stage a mock hanging to symbolise their plight, an AFP reporter saw.
At least 90 farmers reeling under heavy debt have committed suicide so far this year in India's southern state of Karnataka, of which Bangalore is the capital.
"There are imbalances inbuilt in the WTO agreement on agriculture in the matters of domestic support, market access and export subsidies," said farm lobby leader M.D. Nanjundaswamy.
"All these provisions in the agreement are being misused and abused by the rich nations who subsidise their farmers and exporters heavily."
On Tuesday, the United States and European Union (news - web sites) came under pressure as big farm exporters and developing countries backed demands by the developing world for sweeping agricultural reforms.
Farm negotiations are set to be the most contentious issues dogging the trade talks, with stubborn divergences among the 146-member WTO countries over the extent and pace of reducing state aid to farmers.
A newly-formed and steadily growing group of 21 developing nations led by Brazil, India and China has insisted on its demands for deep cuts in agricultural subsidies by wealthy nations.
Nanjundaswamy alleged that the developed countries were dumping their agricultural surplus in developing markets.
"This has pushed the third world into all sort of miseries. There is a direct link between the suicides by farmers and the imbalances in the WTO agreement," he said.
Nanjundaswamy added that although the Indian government had promised to champion their cause he was worried there would be a last minute sell-out.
"I hope India will not bend at the last moment under pressure from the United States," he said.