Kamal Nath points out of his helicopter window at the farmland of Madhya Pradesh slipping by. “Look at those farms,” he says. “Half a hectare, a hectare at the most. Livelihood farming. How can you talk about commercial farming here?”

The Indian trade minister’s counterparts have time and again heard him invoke the plight of impoverished farmers during his four years at the centre of the beleaguered so-called Doha round of trade talks. Now, however, his favourite theme is being heard in a poor rural setting as he campaigns to win office in a state election that could remove him from the World Trade Organisation circuit.