From Fields to Forums: A Reflective Commentary on Agricultural Resistance Amidst Neo-Liberal Policies in Jammu and Kashmir
Waseem Ahmad Bhat
Abstract
This article, From Fields to Forums: A Reflective Commentary on Agricultural Resistance Amidst Neo-Liberal Policies in Jammu and Kashmir, analyzes the socio-economic challenges confronting apple farmers in Kashmir and examines the political significance of the 2023 National Conference on Apple Farming as a platform for collective resistance. Waseem Ahmad Bhat documents how neoliberal reforms, deregulation, and corporate exploitation have intensified agrarian distress, reduced farmers’ incomes, and weakened traditional agricultural livelihoods in a sector that sustains nearly five million people. Through first-hand observations as a conference delegate, Bhat highlights key concerns raised by farmer organizations — particularly the All-India Kisan Sabha and Jammu and Kashmir Kisan Tehreek — regarding unfair pricing structures, rising input costs, exploitative market practices, inadequate storage infrastructure, and the marginalization of small growers. The article shows how farmers and left-aligned unions used the conference to build solidarity, advance demands for minimum support prices, crop insurance, regulation of transport and trade, and the creation of farmer-led cooperatives and crop-specific federations. Importantly, Bhat situates agricultural struggle within a broader crisis of democratic rights following the revocation of Articles 370 and 35A, arguing that economic justice for farmers is inseparable from political autonomy and civic freedoms. The article contributes to scholarship on agrarian resistance by demonstrating how grassroots mobilization, collective forums, and farmer-worker unity can counter neoliberal agricultural regimes and promote sustainable, equitable development in Kashmir.
Keywords
agrarian resistance, neoliberalism, Kashmir apple industry, farmer solidarity, agricultural policy reform, Waseem Ahmad Bhat
