Vandana Shiva: ‘Farmers today resemble refugees’

The noted environmentalist offers candid takes on India’s agrarian crisis, sustainable agriculture, and gender equality in farming.

In the face of India’s agrarian crisis, with farmers weighed down by debt, suicide rates on the rise, and Western seed corporations striving for monopolistic control, the environment activist, Vandana Shiva, noted for her advocacy of organic farming and the safeguarding of native crop varieties, was in Chennai recently to give a lecture titled “Seeds of Freedom”, on invitation by the Prakriti Foundation as part of its 25th anniversary. In an interview to Frontline, she spoke of the need to achieve gender equality in farming and land utilisation. She also addressed critical topics such as sustainable farming, farmers’ rights, and the dynamic changes unfolding in Indian agriculture.

Read the full interview here.

Credits:

Reporting: Siddarth Muralidharan

Camera: Thamodharan Bharath, Shiva Raj S.

Edited by: Sambavi Parthasarathy, Shikha Kumari A.

Produced by: Saatvika Radhakrishna, Abhinav Chakraborty