Even as farmers from different parts of the country, and primarily Punjab, continue their protest on the borders of Delhi against the newly-passed agriculture laws, many other cultivators elsewhere in the country seem to have resigned to their fate of poverty. A report on the digital news channel Bihar Tak from a village in Bihar shows how farmers sell their produce way below the minimum support price and expect nothing from the authorities.

A farmer from a village in Mokama area of Bihar said that there are no buyers for their rice crop which is currently being harvested. “Rice here currently sells at Rs 400-500 [per quintal]. We are not paid prices as per the MSP [which, for rice, is currently over Rs 1800 per quintal]. Nobody cares about the farmers or our wishes.”

Asked why the farmers of Bihar are not joining the protests against the agriculture laws, the farmers said that there is not enough awareness in the area. One farmer also said that their struggles are different from those of the farmers of Punjab, and that they do not have the option of selling their crops at the MSPs fixed by the government – with or without the laws.