Explained: Why farmers are angry in India's fastest-growing farm economy

India was swept by about a dozen major farm protests in 2018, with thousands of farmers travelling to Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai in the last week of November 2018 alone

Some 300 km north-west of capital Bhopal, in the heart of India, amidst dense neem trees, is a courtyard that could determine the electoral fate of this state--and the events that unfolded here explains why farmers marched to Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata in the last week of November 2018.

The courtyard here in Budha village was the epicentre of the 2017 farmers’ protests across Madhya Pradesh (MP) --a state that depends on agriculture for 30% of its income and reported 10.9% annual growth in its agricultural sector for eight years to 2015--India’s fastest.

The protest spiralled