Angry farmers march to Indian parliament

• The mass rally is latest bid by farmer groups to put pressure on Modi govt ahead of 2019 polls

Tens of thousands of farmers and agricultural workers marched towards the Indian parliament yesterday, demanding debt waivers and higher crop prices, putting pressure on Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of 2019 elections.

More than 300,000 Indian farmers have killed themselves in the last two decades mainly because of poor irrigation, failed crops and being unable to pay back loans.

Farmers from across the country flooded by train and bus into Delhi since Thursday to mass in the capital city's Ramlila Grounds before marching to parliament.

Organisers said some 80,000 farmers and farm labourers were participating in the two-day agitation that will culminate with a petition to the Indian president after the march was stopped half-a-mile ahead of the parliament house.

Police erected hundreds of steel barricades to stop the marching crowds and kept water cannon on stand-by in case of any disorder.

The gathering was one of the biggest to hit the Indian capital since 2012 protests over the gang rape of a student.

Participants marched through central Delhi chanting slogans and holding placards emblazoned with "Down With Modi Government" and "Long Live Farmer Unity" as thousands of riot and armed policemen stood guard.

"The farmer crisis has got twice as bad in the last five years," Sadhu Singh, a farmer from northern Punjab state known as India's rice bowl, told AFP.

"We are losing money on every grain of rice we produce," he said.

Some 200 farmer groups backed by left-leaning political parties have set three main demands for the government, including a nationwide waiver of farm loans, better prices for their produce and a special parliament session to discuss their plight.

The mass rally is the latest bid by farmer groups to put pressure on the Modi government ahead of the 2019 national elections.

The right-wing nationalist leader has promised to double their income by 2022 but farmers say nothing has changed for them.