For decades, many farmers associations, be it individual, local or regional have been in existence to represent the causes of farmers in India. The associations have agitated against the plight of farmers, misguided policies imposed by the government and other crop related issues, but most of the time their voice has gone unheard without creating the desired impact. As a result,  the very existence of the farmers and their livelihoods are in jeopardy.

At this juncture, the core group of farmer associations across the country has unanimously decided to give a collective voice to all these associations representing many agri-products with various crops like chili, oil palms, cotton, sugarcane, tobacco etc. The idea is to bring all farmer associations, which are formed by farmers themselves, under one umbrella and provide a common platform to all these farmers associations across India, so that the farmers’ voice is not neglected by policymakers and farmer grievances are attended to urgently.

One of the important issues that FAIFA is representing currently is the cause of millions of tobacco farmers in India, whose livelihood is threatened by the extreme tobacco control regulations in the country.