Sugarcane, potatoes & flowers — How farmers are transforming protest sites

New Delhi: As the Delhi Police along with other law enforcement officials dug their heels in at protest sites by taking their temporary barricading to permanent in the form of erecting cement walls and cementing iron nails to the roads leading into the Capital, the protesting farmers, whose resolve to stay put has grown stronger every day in the last two months have now changed the landscape of the areas around them.

Land plots filled with wild grasses near the Ghazipur, Tikri and Singhu border protest sites have now been converted into well-curated nurseries with a variety of flowers such as marigold and rose. The protesting farmers have also sowed seeds for potatoes and sugarcanes in the nurseries surrounded by concertina wires that came up as part of stringent security installation at the agitation sites to hinder the protesters' movement to Delhi.

"Our motivation is simple. The government had fixed iron nails. But we are planting flowers, fruits and crops. We are farmers, this is what we do," Ramraji, who hails from Jind in Haryana, said at UP Gate (Ghazipur).

The 54-year-old farmer is among the several who are now curating the nurseries for which seeds and saplings are being sourced from nearby nurseries in Ghaziabad.

Another protestor volunteering for the work said the nursery has flowers like rose and marigold besides varieties of plants like palm, pine and others set in planters. "We had also planted flowers next to the iron nails fixed near the barricading by police. We give flowers and crops in exchange for nails," he said.

Farmers from Dhurana village in Sonipat also planted flowers at the Singhu border protest site and left flower pots on top of shipping containers brought in to block their way into Delhi. Satyanarayan, 74, said his group even brought soil from their village to plant the flower saplings.

"It is our message to the government that we will spread love even if it uses force to suppress us," he said. A farmer leader from Haryana, Suresh Koth, said, "Sarkar kaante bo rahi hai, ham phool laga rahe hain."

However, while this outpouring of planting flowers has largely been a reaction to the government's decision to convert their temporary barricading into permanent obstacles for the agitating agrarians, protesting farmers in and around Delhi started using their skills at protest sites many

weeks ago.

When the border site agitation began last November, some farmers had chosen to proceed to the Burari ground where protest permission was accorded. But farmer leaders decided to stay put at the borders and the few who made it to Burari were stuck there. Not having any other options, the handful of farmers there had also started growing their own food.

(With agency inputs)