Bharatiya Kisan Union President Rakesh Tikait with AAP leader Sanjay Singh and others address the media during Kisan Union Farmers’ Dialogue on the Seed Bill, Electricity Bill and the India-US Free Trade Agreement on February 10, 2026. | Photo credit: PTI
The Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) has announced a series of protests, including burning effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and United States President Donald Trump in all villages against the India-US bilateral agreement.
BKU leader Rakesh Tikait told reporters in Delhi on Tuesday (February 10, 2026) that the Union government has lost the confidence of farmers and trade deals with the US and the European Union would have far-reaching adverse effects on farmers.
Mr Tikait said a number of recent policy announcements such as the Seeds Bill and the Electricity (Amendment) Bill were targeted against farmers. The peasants will support the workers in the general strike called by the Central Union for February 12.
Mr Tikait said the actual texts of trade deals with the US and EU had still not been released and their details remained shrouded in “a veil of secrecy”. He demanded that India completely withdraw from the agreements with the US and the EU, or at least remove all provisions related to agriculture.
“The EU and the US provide their farmers with massive subsidies and their own huge agricultural surpluses, which they consistently try to store in countries like India. Unfortunately, the Indian government signed these agreements without any consultation with farmers’ organizations and without assessing their impact on agriculture and farmers’ livelihoods. The non-disclosure of documents related to the negotiations suggests that the government wants to hide the details of these agreements among farmers to contain nationwide protests.”
Import of soybean oil
Mr Tikait said the import of dried distillers grains with solubles (DDG), a by-product of biofuel production used as animal feed, would severely depress domestic prices of animal and feed crops in India such as maize, sorghum and soybean. “Imports of soybean oil from the US will have a devastating impact on farm prices of soybeans, which are already well below the minimum support price (MSP) of ₹ 5,328. Soybean farmers in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana and Rajasthan are already facing a severe price crisis,” he said, adding that the deal will further worsen their situation.
The leader of the BKU called the bill on seeds extremely destructive. “It increases seed prices, strengthens corporate control and predatory pricing and weakens the legal protections afforded to farmers under the Plant Variety Protection and Farmers’ Rights Act 2001,” he said. He said of the pesticide management bill that it protects the interests of the pesticide industry rather than the interests of farmers.
“It does not grant adequate regulatory or prohibition powers to states, nor does it provide price controls, effective grievance redressal or accountability mechanisms,” he said. On the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, Mr Tikait said the proposed legislation paved the way for the privatization and commercialization of the power sector and reduced states to mere formal entities.
Published – 10 February 2026 21:35 IST