They look for alternatives to fertilizers and pesticides, but are not in a position to simply throw up everything and go back to natural farming. They face drought, but they are in no mind to say they can live as their forefathers did. They want to be part of the modern world as much as everyone else wants to be. They grow sugarcane in western Maharashtra because it is the most dependable and well-paying cash crop, but many seek alternatives. These days many of them are turning to vegetables because the market is better, they are taking their products to the highway to catch trucks and travel hundreds of kilometers to the Pune market where the price is good.
Farmers are economic actors and capable of making choices.
The really spontaneous protest by the Karnataka farmers was not over the Monsanto seeds, but over groundnuts. Five farmers and one policeman died in police firing. This was the result at least partly of government policy. After the scare about adulterated oil some time ago, the government started importing cooking oil on a large scale. Prices went down in the Mumbai market and then elsewhere.