Nationwide farmers' strike shuts down large parts of India

Protests against new agriculture laws hits transport, shops and markets across the country

Farmers in India have shut down swathes of the country's transport, shops and markets as they escalated their protests against new agriculture laws with the launch of a national strike.

Hundreds of thousands of farmers blocked all roads into the capital Delhi for most of the day, and across the country demonstrated on railway lines and highways and called for a shutdown of shops, in a bid to pressurise the government into repealing new agriculture laws they say will leave them poverty stricken and at the mercy of corporations.