Boyd Anderson was a well known rancher from the hills near Fir Mountain, Sask., which is about 170 km southwest of Moose Jaw and just north of the Montana border. In addition to his Grainews columns he wrote books, including Grass Roots, which tells his life story. The “Dirty ’30s” were an especially bad time in the ranching country of what’s now the RM of Waverley No. 44. Farming was tough, as was cattle ranching, so his dad started a sheep herd. Sheep could make it through the winter by scratching through the snow to find the Russian thistle underneath.

At the ripe old age of 14, Boyd spent from November 1934 to late February 1935 herding sheep several miles from home. He stayed in an abandoned two-room farmhouse with a kitchen range for heat and cooking, but with leaky windows that let in snow. There was a well for water but when it froze up he had to melt snow on the kitchen stove. He had a radio with earphones but used it sparingly to save the battery. He only got home on Christmas and Valentine’s Day. He grew up fast that winter.

I think every Grade 8 class in Saskatchewan schools should have Boyd Anderson’s book Grass Roots as required reading. The ‘helicopter’ parenting of today robs the child of the chance to “grow up”. I’ve recently learned that in Saskatchewan our schools are not allowed to fail any student in any grade so they advance through the grades regardless of performance. What is that teaching the kids, and what will happen when they strike out in the real world?

Farming in the RM of Waverley No. 44

While ranching was a challenge in the hills north of the Montana border, farming was even more difficult.

From 1938 to 2022, 30 bushels per acre of wheat was the best she wrote in that southern RM. Boyd Anderson reported that 1937 was a complete disaster. They planted some oats twice but nothing came up; it was the first year he could remember that they never hooked horses to some harvesting machinery.

During the Second World War, Boyd joined up to serve our country. He had to parachute from a floundering plane and was captured, ending up as a prisoner of war and spending some time in a POW camp — an inhumane experience, but he survived to come back to the Fir Mountain ranch and live a long and productive life.

Boyd was very involved in community and farm and ranch groups. He was councillor and reeve of the RM of Waverley for many years. His son is now reeve of that RM, so the tradition carries on. Boyd received many awards over the years, including induction to the Saskatchewan Agricultural Hall of Fame in 1987.

It was my thrill to meet Boyd on two occasions. One was very briefly at Willbar Farms near Dundurn, where Boyd pulled in with his big Cadillac. There was a bus tour on that occasion and I was recruited to give soils/agronomy commentary on the tour.

The second was a more leisurely visit at his home in the town of Glentworth, not far from Fir Mountain. I very much enjoyed the stories he had to tell and learned a bit about how he overcame many adversities to make a large prosperous ranch.

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The Canadian arm of Rabobank — an Amsterdam-based farmer co-operative lender, providing banking, leasing and real estate services in more than 38 countries — announced Tuesday it’s getting set to offer “financing, risk management and partnership solutions” to primary producers in this country.

For now, the company said, it plans to focus on a “core market” of the three Prairie provinces, served by a remote workforce rather than physical branch offices.

Rabobank’s Canadian arm has operated out of Toronto since 1997 and today has a staff of about 20 providing loans, asset-based financing, private placements, merger-and-acquisition services and risk management products among others.

It describes its Canadian business so far as “food and agribusiness industry-specific,” for wholesale clients across much of the value chain.

At the farm level, though, the Canadian arm’s work has until now been only indirectly, through “third-party vendor finance partnerships.” For example, Rabobank has provided financing on crop inputs to an estimated 12,000 farmers via Richardson Pioneer’s ag business centres on the Prairies.

The company said this week via email its decision to enter the farm lending business will have no impact on its offerings through third-party vendors such as Richardson at this time.

In a joint venture with Calgary-based Telus Agriculture, Rabobank in 2021 also took ownership of Minneapolis tech firm Conservis, whose software products gather and integrate farm-level data from platforms such as Climate FieldView, the John Deere Operations Center, Crop Data Management Systems and Rabo AgriFinance.

Since Rabobank’s arrival in Canada, “we’ve gained a deep understanding of the marketplace and how Rabobank can best serve Canada’s leading growers,” Paul Beiboer, Rabobank North America’s CEO, said in a release Tuesday.

Expanding its Canadian portfolio to include direct farm-level lending has already been an ongoing project for nearly three years, the company said Tuesday, noting it’s already met all national and provincial regulatory and licensing requirements.

Rabobank said it plans to offer “short- and long-term debt options” at the farm and ranch level. “We will be a one-stop shop for Canada’s agricultural term and operational lending needs, as well as other financial services and risk management products,” Marc Drouin, Rabobank Canada’s general manager, said in Tuesday’s release.

Rabobank has also already named Roxane Lieverse as its new head of Canada agricultural banking, to be based in Calgary. Lieverse, up until October, was director of Alberta agricultural banking with Scotiabank, and previously was a regional manager for National Bank of Canada.

Lieverse is also now building a “dedicated team of relationship managers” for the ag lending business, Rabobank said.

The company is now “onboarding several experienced and talented relationship managers,” she said via email, adding that it’s entering the market “with skilled bankers who truly understand agriculture and want to support industry growth.” Meanwhile, she said, farmers will be able to contact the company via its general email.

In Rabobank’s release, Lieverse said the company plans to “do business with our customers at their kitchen table (and) meet face-to-face with clients to listen to their needs and understand their operations.”

Rabobank’s approach, she said via email, will focus on a “partnership model” with a producer. Such producers, she said, “tend to take a longer-term, growth-based view of their operation and understand that they need a financing partner through the industry cycles.”

Setting Rabobank apart from other lenders in the same market, she said, is the bank’s “deep global research… which prospective customers will benefit from, as they navigate the global impact on their operation.”

In a separate interview this week with Rod Nickel of the Reuters news service, company officials said that out of the total Canadian farm lending market, currently dominated by Farm Credit Canada and the big six domestic banks, Rabobank aims to command a 10-15 per cent share within 15 years.

“The number of young farmers is actually growing and the country is on track to become the world’s second-largest food and agricultural products exporter,” Beiboer said in Tuesday’s release, describing Canada as “an attractive and logical market” for Rabobank to work with farmers and ranchers as well as its current corporate clients.

— Article updated Jan. 14, 2023 to include additional information from Roxane Lieverse of Rabobank.

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Factors such as financial insecurity, uncontrollable weather and isolating working conditions contribute to high depression, anxiety and suicide rates among farmers, according to the Mental Health Commission of Canada.

Devin Wozniak, a farmer and life coach from Glenavon, Sask., said he thinks there is a lack of emotional support for farmers.

“When I used to run a business, I used to get validation or gratification from my customers,” he said. “And then as I shifted into full-time farmer, I felt needy. I was constantly needing from my family, from ag stores. You need them to be open.”

After struggling with anxiety and depression for many years, Wozniak knew spending hours upon hours alone in a combine was not helping his case. He needed to find a support system outside of his family and his employees.

“There’s never really a ‘thank you.’ There’s actually resentment. Like the weather, we can’t control the weather. As the leader of the farm, we’re considered the boss so we’re needing people to work long hours, and they look at us as being the slave driver. Our boss is Mother Nature, but we feel the brunt of it.”

Wozniak found education and belonging through an online program called The Bulletproof Husband, which provides support to men struggling with their personal relationships.

Along with finding a community within that program, Wozniak said he was mentored by a psychiatrist for many years and explored other online programs involving mental wellness.

Wozniak said he would be interested in the DMAF program and he thinks rural communities could benefit from this type of offering.

“Especially in a small community, when you are going through a tough time a lot of people avoid it, they don’t know how to relate to it,” said Wozniak.

Literacy

DMAF is expanding its programming from last year to include multiple options for webinars and in-person workshops.

New to the DMAF menu this year is AgCulture, a program for mental health professionals looking to gain agricultural literacy to better care for rural patients.

“This year DMAF’s focus is on supporting the industry as a whole,” DMAF executive director Megz Reynolds said. “This means bringing mental health literacy and educational workshops to farming communities, hosting national webinars to bring Canadians in agriculture together, and bringing AgCulture to mental health clinicians across Canada to ensure an understanding and connection to agriculture.”

The three workshops available for communities are Talk, Ask, Listen; Mental Health First Aid; and In the Know.

“Talk, Ask, Listen” is a half-day workshop intended for farmers who want to increase their understanding of mental health and begin to unpack the stigma surrounding mental health issues.

For more intensive training, “Mental Health First Aid” is facilitated by the Mental Health Commission of Canada and provides a framework for people to better manage their own, or a loved one’s, mental health problems.

The DMAF website describes “In the Know” as an evidence-based workshop which “aims to build mental health knowledge and increase help-seeking among farmers.”

Individuals looking to bring any of the no-cost workshops to their communities can apply to DMAF’s Community Fund by filling out an online form. Applications are open until Dec. 10.

— Hannah Polk reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Regina.

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Operating from 1898 to 1954, the File Hills Colony scheme involved what the government today describes as the “involuntary relocation” of graduates from residential schools and industrial schools in Saskatchewan and Manitoba to Peepeekisis Cree Nation’s lands in southeastern Saskatchewan’s Qu’Appelle Valley.

Read more: Reconciling the painful past creates hope for a more promising future

Montreal MP and federal Crown–Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller delivered the apology at the Nation on Aug. 3.

“Canada’s apology to our Nation and our people, can allow us to move forward on our path to healing our Nation and becoming one people of Peepeekisis,” Peepeekisis Cree Nation’s Chief Francis Dieter said.

“On behalf of the government of Canada, I am truly sorry for the harm, trauma, and significant loss in agricultural land the community of Peepeekisis Cree Nation has experienced due to Canada’s role in the File Hills Colony scheme,” Miller said.

The colony scheme was set up by the region’s Indian agent, William Morris Graham, with the aim of preventing the Indigenous graduates of residential and industrial schools from reverting to traditional lifestyles.

Hand-picked graduates, many of whom had no connection to Peepeekisis Cree Nation, were sent there to farm on land the government now says was “arbitrarily allocated” to the scheme with no consent from — or compensation to — the Nation.

The graduates were encouraged to adopt a colonial homesteader lifestyle, according to Peepeekisis Cree Nation. They also lost band membership at their home reserves and “were not permitted to have contact with those who adhered to traditional culture or to engage in cultural ceremonies.”

Meanwhile, original band members displaced from their homes by the scheme were “deprived of any use of their communal lands so the graduates could live and work there.”

The social divide that the scheme created between original band members and the new placements had “longstanding impacts,” Peepeekisis Cree Nation said, including a “loss of identity (which) persists on both sides today.”

Officially, File Hills Colony was “touted as a model” for school programs, but the reality “was much darker,” the Nation said. The colony was removed in the mid-1950s following legal action.

Settling a specific claim the Nation first filed in 1986, the federal government on Aug. 10 last year formally announced a negotiated settlement in which Peepeekisis Cree Nation is to be provided with $150 million in total compensation, including the option to acquire up to 18,720 acres of land.

The settlement comes after the specific claim made its way through federal courts over the following three decades, before landing at the federal Specific Claims Tribunal in 2017.

“Moving forward this settlement agreement will allow our community to close this unfortunate chapter in our shared history, heal and prosper for our future generations,” Dieter said in a separate government release last August.

“We cannot change the past, but the resolution of this specific claim provides us with the opportunity to move forward together within Peepeekisis Cree Nation and with Canada.”

“In creating and implementing the colony scheme, Canada breached its fiduciary duty to the Nation by failing to protect the Nation’s interest in (the allocated farmland) and not providing any compensation to the Nation,” the government said last August.

“The historic and ongoing harm that the colony scheme caused to the Peepeekisis Nation created community divisions and animosity between families and members. The legacy of the colony scheme continues to impact the Nation to this day.”

In last week’s release, the government said it “will continue to work alongside Peepeekisis Cree Nation to build the relationship between our two nations for the benefit of all Canadians.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The West African country has a history of sometimes deadly conflict between local communities and foreign companies that have cleared huge tracts of land for palm oil and sugarcane plantations in recent years.

Locals have complained of environmental damage, losing their livelihoods and not being fairly compensated for their land. Under the current system, landowners get an annual rent of $2.50 per acre, which was determined by the state.

The Customary Land Rights Act and the Land Commission Act, both enacted on Monday, empower local landowners to negotiate the value of their land with investors and prevent it being leased out without their express consent.

Campaigners and locals praised the move, while one palm oil company executive said it would spell the end of investment.

“To our knowledge there is not a legal regime anywhere, in either hemisphere that grants such robust rights to communities facing harm,” said Eleanor Thompson of Namati, an international legal advocacy group.

A director of SOCFIN, the biggest agribusiness company in Sierra Leone, called it a “dream of NGOs.”

“Certainly it will block any investment… It makes things very expensive and we are all prone to enormous blackmail by various communities,” Gerben Haringsma added.

The Luxembourg-based company has invested more than $150 million in palm oil farming in Sierra Leone. It has also frequently clashed with local landowners.

Lands Minister Turad Senessie said the new laws would encourage investment by ensuring peace and order.

“This is a win-win situation for both business and Sierra Leoneans including rural landowners,” he told Reuters.

One of the laws will also end a colonial-era provision that bars descendants of freed slaves from owning land outside the capital, Freetown.

— Reporting for Reuters by Umaru Fofana.

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Viktor established a farming company in southern Ukraine 20 years ago, in the Mykolaiv Oblast, where hellish heat and lack of rainfall can make the land look like the Sahara Desert with yellow dunes. This is a corner of the classic Ukrainian steppe, where rainfall is very rare.

I first visited three years ago, and immediately felt great respect for Viktor and his nephew Sergiy, who farms with him. I wondered how they could grow even a small crop of grain here.

But Sergiy, the chief agronomist, has found a way.

Under such conditions, winter wheat and barley, sunflower, winter and wild peas, as well as oil flax grow on the fields of Dmytrivka. Only these cultures can withstand this hellish heat and lack of water. At the same time, the Shipovs manage to get excellent yields — up to five tonnes per hectare of wheat and barley and more than two tonnes per hectare of sunflower. For this region, this is an excellent result.

But now, they find themselves only 80 km from the active hostilities, trying to put in a crop.

“We started the sowing campaign by removing rockets from the field,” Sergiy said. “The big ones are 50 centimetres in diameter. There were quite a few of them. After that, the seeds were sown quite quickly.”

Challenging times

While the reality of farming during a war is having to adjust plans quickly and often, so far they’ve succeeded where others have not.

A very large nearby agriculture holding won’t be able to put in a crop. They’d started seeding from the south, in the Kherson region, but the war overtook them. All of their equipment is now stuck in Russian-occupied territory.

But the Shipovs’ business continues to face challenges, too, mainly due to paralyzed logistics, leading them to find new ways to plant and grow their crops.

“All the complex fertilizers we bought remained in the occupied Nova Kakhovka, Sergiy said. “We have to do without them. However, the seller promises that he will still pay us. We have been forced to reduce fertilizer application rates, which will certainly reduce future yields.”

Victor and Sergiy Shipov cultivate 5,000 hectares of land. About 60 per cent of this area is occupied by winter wheat.

“We reduced the area under sunflower, sowed quite a lot of peas, and most importantly, increased the area under oil flax,” Sergiy said. Surprisingly, the demand for this crop is constantly increasing. Moreover, buyers themselves come and export flaxseeds to Europe. Now the logistics factor is critically important for us.”

Those logistics are critical, and challenged. Right now more than 1,000 tonnes of sunflower seed are still stored on the farm, which is the equivalent of US$1 million. And right now, it’s impossible to sell this product. The Shipovs tried to send it to the westernmost ports in Ukraine, but the cars returned because Russian forces had bombed a bridge.

“Honestly, the situation is stupid,” Sergiy said. “We are sitting on a huge pile of grain and do not know what to do with it. And ahead is the next harvest. So now we are trying to somehow solve the problem.”

They wanted to process part of the grain into products, but there is not enough milling capacity for everyone. Therefore, they plan to use polyethylene sleeves for long-term storage of the crop — but they have to wait until they are brought from Germany. In addition, you need to buy special equipment for loading grain into the sleeves.

The Shipovs also ordered fungicides for wheat and sunflower in Germany. Given that there is now congestion of trucks and cars on the border with the European Union, they now need to pray that the fungicides arrive on time and they manage to protect the crops.

There’s also a difficult situation with fuel. There’s more available now, but farmers are afraid to buy diesel fuel in full. After all, each tank is a potential target for occupiers’ missiles.

Hope remains

Nevertheless, Sergiy does not lose heart and says that he even managed to buy a new German seed drill for 185,000 euros (about C$254,100). The purchase had been made before the war, and the seeder was somewhere in a warehouse in a dealer, and miraculously survived — it was saved from the invaders. He says it was paid for in advance, and he already thought that he would be left without a seeder — and without the money.

Some of the company’s employees were mobilized to the front. Their jobs for the duration of the war will be occupied by refugees from more-southern regions who fled from the Russian invaders.

“More than 200 migrants now live in our village,” Sergiy said. “These are good hard-working people and I am sure that with their help we will grow and harvest grain. Although those people who went to fight joke and say that they will have time to return and help with the grain harvest.”

Those who remain living and working in the region are united in their desire to see the invaders defeated, and will do what they can to contribute to that goal. They’ve taken new hope as the invaders have not found the easy victory they were expecting.

“In general, in the first days of the war, people were very worried and maybe did not even believe in good things,” Sergiy said. “But now, even those who felt sympathy for Russia realized that our only option to survive is to win. All our compatriots work with enthusiasm, and help the army and each other in any way they can.”

Already their farm company has given one truck to the Ukrainian army, and they plan to give a second one. The Shipovs also regularly send financial and material assistance to the army, as well as trying to meet their humanitarian needs. They see the war as involving the entire country.

“We understand that this is not just a policy or an accident — they (Russia) want to destroy us,” Sergiy said. “Therefore, we are not going to sit idly by. And we will never work for the occupiers.”

Amid the chaos of war, however, came something any farmer can understand. After a long dry spell, the cycle broke and precipitation has returned to the area. Over this winter, more than 140 mm of precipitation fell. On top of this, a couple of good rains arrived in April.

“Now there is moisture in our fields and if God willing, we will grow a good harvest,” Sergiy said. “But this is not the main thing now — I want Russia to stop killing our people. And we will do everything to win.”

— Ihor Pavliuk is a Ukrainian farm journalist.

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In the Kherson area of southern Ukraine, where war rages and the city of Kherson is seen by the Russian invaders as strategic, a column set out on Monday.

This was a column of tractors, under the flag of Ukraine. In it were farmers and ordinary citizens, determined to directly declare to the occupiers that Ukraine will not comply with their demands, and will sow grain and harvest bread in their native land.

There is a story that, early in the invasion, when the first Russian soldiers entered southern Ukraine, an old woman approached them.

She advised the invaders to put seeds in their pockets. “Why?” asked the invaders.

“So when you lie down in our soil, the seeds will sprout, and in this way you will benefit people,” the old woman replied.

Missing friends

I would not like to find myself in the place of a farmer now, on whose fields rockets and mines fall every day.

Especially if at any moment hungry Russian marauders in military uniform can come to you and take away your property. Or, for fun, set fire to your tractors and combines. This is exactly what is happening in the regions of Ukraine occupied by the Russian army.

When I planned to write this article about Ukrainian farmers coping with the war for Canadian readers, I first planned to write about those people who work where it is most dangerous right now.

To this end, I called my friend Oleg, whose fields are located in the eastern part of the war — near Volnovakha, in the Donbass.

Today, the city of Volnovakha, after three weeks of fighting, has practically ceased to exist. People say that there is not a single whole house left.

But, unfortunately, Oleg’s phone is silent, as is his social media account. I can only hope that everything is fine with him and his family.

I remembered how a few years ago I called Oleg. At this time he was building a new house. I was surprised: why are you building a house, investing a lot of money where it is literally 20 km from the front line. Then Oleg replied that this was his native land, and he would not leave it.

But staying on the land in areas under occupation and the threat of war is a difficult and dangerous choice, in the face of Russian aggression.

In a village in the Chernihiv region where my father lives and farms, Russian fascists killed civilians right on the street. The village has since been liberated, and the locals mourn their losses even as they hope for a brighter future.

Challenges abound

First of all, I called Maxim Bernatsky, the head of the Rost-Agro company (Poltava region, central-eastern Ukraine).

Together with his father, Bernatsky is the owner of several farms, the total area of which exceeds 10,000 hectares (nearly 25,000 acres). He is one of the most respected farmers in Ukraine. Maxim is a former schoolteacher who learned agriculture from beginning. Today, all farmers in Ukraine listen to his opinion.

No-till and strip-till technologies are used on Rost-Agro fields. The company produces seeds under its own brand. Here, grain is dried on wood, liquid fertilizers are used, agricultural machinery is repaired independently and the most modern technologies are used.

Bernatsky said while he was finding challenges, he quickly added he was in a better situation than many of his fellow farmers.

“After all, they don’t shoot here, and thanks to the Ukrainian army, we can work in peace,” he said.

“Also in the fall, we checked our agricultural machinery, stocked fuel, fertilizers and pesticides. Therefore, we are ready to go out into the field and sow.”

However, he says, not all farmers have such a good situation.

Farms that are still able to function are currently aiding the war effort and the country’s civilians, he said.

“We are constantly transporting food to big cities, and allocating money to purchase ammunition for soldiers,” he said. “We still have money, but many farmers have already given away everything they had.”

Part of the problem is going to quickly be cash flow, he said. Many Ukrainian farmers saved their grain in storages, primarily corn and sunflower. They wanted to sell this grain in April at the highest price. But now all the ports of Ukraine are blocked by Russian warships. Selling grain is almost impossible.

Even if farmers can find a buyer for grain, they won’t be able to bring it to them. Many bridges have been destroyed, and cars can be fired upon on the road. It turns out that farmers theoretically have money — in the form of grain — but they cannot get it.

Bernatsky complains he cannot deliver seeds to those farmers who have already paid for them — and this is a big problem with seeding looming.

In the longer run he worries about the damage to the nation’s seaports and the destruction that has occurred during their capture and occupation.

Even if tomorrow the ports are taken back, it will take a long time to repair the equipment. This means that the export of grain will only be possible in rail cars to the west.

“This is still unrealistic,” Bernatsky said. “If we can’t sell our grain, then in the fall we won’t have the money to pay people’s salaries and buy resources to work with.”

Bernatsky cannot answer my question about what percentage of acreage in Ukraine will be sown this spring. That depends solely on the Ukrainian army and the military assistance that is lent from abroad.

Another source of mine is Stepan, who runs a 3,000-hectare farm in the Ternopil region of Ukraine.

This is also the still-calm western part of the country, which receives now millions of refugees from the eastern, southern and northern regions. At the same time, in my opinion, the Ternopil region is the most favourable region for agriculture in Ukraine. There are fertile soils and a lot of rain.

Stepan said his farm is a member of a large association of farmers in the region that centrally buy fuel, fertilizers, seeds and pesticides. That structure has been functioning well during these difficult times, and it is also a source assistance between member farms.

Stepan, like other Ukrainian farmers, has already voluntarily donated a lot of money to help the army — going toward products such as body armour, batteries for combat vehicles and other assistance — and toward humanitarian efforts.

“We only think about victory, otherwise we will all be destroyed, all of Ukraine will be destroyed,” Stepan said. “Therefore, each of us is ready to give the last money for the army. But at the same time, we need to think about how to feed people both in Ukraine and in other countries.”

Stepan also managed to stock up on fuel, pesticides and fertilizers in autumn. The main problem for him now is parts for agricultural machinery.

“Now I have to buy all the parts that dealers have, even if I don’t need them now,” Stepan said. “Dealers do their best to give us parts, but there are very few of them.”

He hopes that private business will find new ways to deliver parts for agricultural machinery to Ukraine.

The farm labour force has been exempted, so far at least, from the war effort — a recognition of the strategic importance of agriculture to Ukraine.

“I am glad that the government allows us to leave our machine operators at work and not take them into the army — this is very important,” Stepan said. “Our most valuable capital is people, reliable specialists.”

In the end, Stepan said, the hope of all farmers is a victory for Ukraine in the coming weeks or months.

“Otherwise, we will not be able to sow and grow grain normally,” he said. “This will mean problems not only in Ukraine, but also in other countries.”

— Ihor Pavliuk is an ag journalist working in Ukraine.

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Modi’s decision is a significant climb-down for the combative leader and comes as state elections in politically important grain-belt states loom.

The legislation — three laws introduced in September last year — was aimed at deregulating the sector, allowing farmers to sell produce to buyers beyond government-regulated wholesale markets where growers are assured of a minimum price.

Farmers, fearing the reform would cut the prices they get for their crops, staged nationwide protests that drew in activists and celebrities from India and beyond, including climate activist Greta Thunberg and pop singer Rihanna.

“Today I have come to tell you, the whole country, that we have decided to withdraw all three agricultural laws,” Modi said in an address to the nation.

“I urge farmers to return to their homes, their farms and their families, and I also request them to start afresh.”

The government would repeal the laws in the new session of parliament, starting this month, he said.

The concession on laws the government had said were essential to tackle chronic wastage and inefficiencies comes ahead of elections early next year in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state and long a key political battleground, and two other northern states with large rural populations.

Modi’s capitulation leaves unresolved a complex system of farm subsidies and price supports that critics say the government cannot afford.

It could also raise questions for investors about how economic reforms risk being undermined by political pressures.

Protesting farmers, who have been camped out in their thousands by main roads around the capital, New Delhi, celebrated Modi’s back-track.

“Despite a lot of difficulties, we have been here for nearly a year and today our sacrifice finally paid off,” said Ranjit Kumar, a 36-year-old farmer at Ghazipur, a major protest site in Uttar Pradesh.

Jubilant farmers handed out sweets in celebration and chanted “hail the farmer” and “long live farmers’ movement.”

Rakesh Tikait, a farmers’ group leader, said the protests would only be called off when parliament repealed the laws.

Vulnerable to big business

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government said last year there was no question of repealing the laws. It attempted to break the impasse by offering to water down the legislation but protracted negotiations failed.

The protests took a violent turn on Jan. 26, India’s Republic Day, when farmers overwhelmed police and stormed the historic Red Fort in New Delhi after tearing down barricades and driving tractors through roadblocks.

One protester was killed and scores of farmers and policemen were injured.

Farmers say the changes would make them vulnerable to competition from big business and they could eventually lose price support for staples such as wheat and rice.

The government says reform of the sector, which accounts for about 15 per cent of the US$2.7 trillion economy, would have meant new opportunities and better prices for farmers.

Modi announced the scrapping of the laws in a speech marking the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism. Many of the protesting farmers are Sikh.

He acknowledged that the government had failed to win the argument.

The farmers are also calling for minimum support prices for all of their crops, not just rice and wheat, a new demand that has gained traction among farmers across the country.

Some agriculture experts said Modi’s reversal was unfortunate because the reforms would have brought new technology and investment.

“It’s a blow to India’s agriculture,” said Sandip Das, a New Delhi-based researcher and agricultural policy analyst.

“The laws would have helped attract a lot of investment in agricultural and food processing — two sectors that need a lot of money for modernization.”

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), a group that represents top corporations, had pinned hopes on the laws to pave the way for modernizing India’s decrepit post-harvest infrastructure.

Also, the US$34 billion domestic food processing sector would have grown exponentially, thanks to the laws, according to CII.

Another industry body, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, late last year said the laws should spur startups, and technological interventions would help cut wastage and bring efficiency in the agriculture sector.

Seizing on opportunities, global and Indian venture capitals have already started funding agritech startups that aim to run the entire food supply chain, currently prone to massive wastage, often as high as four to five times that of most large economies, experts say.

Anil Ghanwat, head of a farmers’ union and a member of a Supreme Court-appointed farm panel, said the laws promised farmers freedom from middlemen and their repeal would leave them open to old exploitation.

The opposition has been keen to take advantage of the acrimony between farming communities and Modi’s party and Rahul Gandhi of the main opposition Congress party, said the “arrogant” government had been forced to concede.

“Just the beginning of many more victories for people’s voices,” Mahua Moitra, a lawmaker from the Trinamool Congress Party and one of Modi’s staunchest critics, said on Twitter.

State elections are also due soon in Punjab and Uttarakhand in the north.

Modi’s party looks well placed to fend off challenges in the next general election, due by 2024, but in a worrying sign for him, a regional party swept to power in West Bengal state in May.

— Reporting for Reuters by Mayank Bhardwaj, Rajendra Jadhav and Krishna N. Das; additional reporting by Shilpa Jamkhandikar.

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The committee approved three pieces of legislation, which from 2023 will govern spending from the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) — a scheme that will spend 387 billion euros (about C$579 billion) from the EU’s 2021-2027 budget on payments to farmers and rural development.

The rules are the result of a three-year battle between EU countries and lawmakers over how to make the policy greener, which ended when negotiators agreed a deal on reforms in June.

The committee approved the rules with a comfortable majority, but Green lawmakers rejected the proposals saying they failed to align agriculture with EU climate change targets.

The full EU parliament will vote on the rules later this year. Member states’ ministers must then formally approve them.

The EU is overhauling its policies across all sectors to cut greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change.

Agriculture produces around 10 per cent of EU emissions, and the new farming policy will attempt to shift subsidies from environmentally-damaging intensive farming practices to protecting nature.

Farmers’ payments will be tied to complying with environmental rules, while countries will be obliged to spend 20 per cent of payments to farmers from 2023-2024, and 25 per cent between 2025-2027, on “eco-schemes” that protect the environment.

That could include restoring wetlands to absorb CO2, although the rules do not define what counts as an eco-scheme.

Campaigners and some EU lawmakers have said the environmental rules are weak or voluntary, and lack a firm target to cut emissions. They are calling for lawmakers in EU parliament to reject the rules.

The rules also aim to halt the decline of Europe’s small farms, introducing requirements for countries to redistribute subsidies to smaller businesses — an attempt to stop large businesses sucking up money.

— Reporting for Reuters by Kate Abnett in Brussels.

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Negotiators representing the EU’s 27 countries and European Parliament struck the deal on Friday to reform the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which will spend 387 billion euros (C$569.3 billion) on payments to farmers and rural development, roughly a third of the EU’s 2021-2027 budget.

“This deal is essential to ensure that this CAP enables the transition towards sustainable agriculture,” EU agriculture commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski said on Monday, at a meeting where EU agriculture ministers approved the deal. The new rules apply from 2023.

Europe’s farmers are already facing climate change impacts such as drought, but agriculture is also the main pressure on Europe’s natural habitats and produces 10 per cent of EU greenhouse gas emissions.

The new CAP will require countries to spend 20 per cent of payments to farmers from 2023-24, and 25 per cent between 2025 and 2027, on “eco-schemes” that protect the environment. It does not define an eco-scheme, but examples could include restoring wetlands to absorb carbon dioxide, or organic farming.

The Commission will assess whether countries’ plans for spending CAP funds comply with EU environment laws, including the bloc’s recently-agreed target to cut emissions faster this decade.

Campaigners and some EU lawmakers said key environmental protections in the deal were weak or voluntary. Parliament, which pushed for more spending on eco-schemes and restrictions on subsidies for large businesses, will vote on the deal in the coming months.

EU countries must redistribute at least 10 per cent of CAP funds to smaller farms, although they can dodge this requirement by using other methods to distribute funds fairly.

The deal also earmarks money for young farmers and creates a 450 million-euro crisis fund in case agricultural markets are disrupted by an emergency such as a pandemic.

— Kate Abnett is Reuters’ European climate and energy correspondent in Brussels.

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