Farmers across India have been protesting for months. Here’s why

Angry Indian farmers have abandoned their fields to stage one of the country’s biggest ever protests.Since November, tens of thousands of farmers have been living in tents at sprawling camps pitched on highways outside the capital New Delhi.Large barricades erected by the police and topped with barbed wire stand a few hundred meters from the camp, preventing the farmers from encroaching any closer to the center of Delhi. At times, violence has broken out during demonstrations.

The farmers are fighting new farming laws passed last September, which they say will devastate their livelihoods. The government says the reforms are needed to modernize the country’s agricultural industry.

With negotiations between the government and the farmers’ unions at a standstill, the protests don’t appear to be ending anytime soon. Here’s what you need to know about the situation. Why are the farmers protesting the new laws? For decades, the Indian government has offered guaranteed prices to farmers for certain crops, creating a stable guide to make decisions and investments for the following crop cycle. Under the previous laws, farmers had to sell their goods at auction at their state’s Agricultural Produce Market Committee, where they were guaranteed to receive at least the government-agreed minimum price. There were restrictions on who could buy, and prices were capped for essential commodities.

Three new laws, initiated by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, dismantled this committee structure, instead allowing farmers to sell their goods to anyone for any price.