NEW DELHI, Feb 10: The farmers agitating against the new farm laws on Wednesday announced that they would block rail traffic across the country for four hours on February 18 even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a fresh appeal to the farmers in the Lok Sabha to resume talks to end the impasse.

Modi defended the farm laws' provisions saying they were ‘optional’ and not ‘compulsory’ as farmers could sell their produce wherever they wanted.

Replying to the debate on the motion of thanks to the President’s address, Modi renewed his call for talks with the agitating farmers on ‘any point of concern’. Calling those behind the protests as 'andolanjeevis' (professional agitators), he said that reforms are necessary for progress and that status quo is retrogressive. The Opposition staged a walkout.

In a press statement, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), a joint front of over 40 farmers’ unions, said a meeting of the farmers' leaders decided to conduct a “rail roko” from 12 noon to 4 pm on February 18 as part of their agitation. Besides, a torchlight procession would be organised across the country.

Addressing a large gathering of protesting farmers at the Singhu border, Bharatiya Kisan Union national spokesperson Rakesh Tikait said attempts to divide Sikhs and non-Sikhs, big and small farmers and the people of Haryana and Punjab had failed. He said the SKM was united and there was no division in the joint front.

Modi had said on Monday, "MSP was there. MSP is there. MSP will remain in the future. Affordable ration for the poor will continue. Mandis will be modernised".

The farmers had earlier rejected a proposal to put on hold implementation of the laws for 18 months.

The three laws give farmers freedom to sell produce outside State-regulated mandis (agri markets) and encourage contract farming.

Eleven meetings with the Government have failed.

The farmers have said to facilitate talks to end the two-month-long protest the "atmosphere of enmity must end" by lifting restrictions on the internet and restoring essential services such as water and electricity at protest sites on the Delhi border.

At the Delhi borders of Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur, tens of thousands of farmers, braving cold weather, have been camping in the open since November 26 demanding repeal of the three new farm laws.