The bottom line in the world’s biggest election

Onions being sorted before going to market in western India.  Atul Loke for The New York Times

More than half of India’s 1.3 billion people depend in some way on farming. Many of them are suffering. The government has focused on maintaining low consumer prices, and booming harvests last year sent food prices tumbling further.

Now, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party seeks another five years in power, hundreds of millions of farmers will have the chance to express their frustration at the ballot box.