French farmers have blocked major motorways around France with tractors in a standoff with the government over concerns about inflation and competition from cheap imports, writes Al Jazeera.

On Monday, farmers said they aimed to establish eight chokepoints on significant roads into Paris.

“We need answers,” said Karine Duc, a farmer in southwestern Lot-et-Garonne, as she joined a convoy of tractors heading for Paris.

“This is the final battle for farming. It’s a question of survival,” she told the Agence France-Presse news agency.

The government, which has been careful to avoid an escalation, has gradually dropped plans to reduce subsidies on agricultural diesel and promised to ease environmental regulations.

Paris has also said it would push its European Union peers to agree to ease regulations on fallow farmland.

Farmers must meet certain conditions to receive EU subsidies, including a requirement to devote 4 percent of farmland to “non-productive” areas where nature can recover.

But farmers organizations say the plans need to go further.