India's Modi says government committed to farmers' welfare

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured farmers on Saturday that reforms in the agrarian sector were aimed at helping them as thousands of farmers continued protests against three new laws to overhaul procurement and sale of produce.

"Reforms will help draw investment in agriculture and benefit farmers, " he said at the annual meeting of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry in New Delhi. "The aim of the all government reforms is to make farmers' prosperous," he said adding that private sector must help improve the country's agriculture sector.

But protesting farmers in northern states fear the new legislations will eventually dismantle India's regulated markets and stop the government from buying wheat and rice at guaranteed prices, leaving them at the mercy of private buyers.