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A Critical Analysis of the Farm Bills 2020 On September 27, 2020, the president of India Mr. Ram Nath Kovid gave his assent to the three farm reform bills - The Farmers’ Produce Trade And Commerce (Promotion And Facilitation) Bill 2020, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill 2020, and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill 2020. These bills have been passed by the parliament in the recently concluded Monsoon season. Our Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi hailed by passage of these bills by saying “A watershed moment in the history of Indian agriculture!” But the thing to worry about is the farmers for whose betterment these Acts have been made are on streets protesting these Acts. Farmers organizations like Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) and the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) have been protesting the bills from September 2020 itself. They have raised the slogan of ‘KISAN BACHAO MANDI BACHAO’ in this article we will discuss the reforms brought by new Acts, why are farmers protesting and way forward. BRIEF HISTORY AND PROVISIONS OF NEW ACTS India is and has been an agrarian economy. After India gained Independence in 1947, farmers used to sell their products direct to the consumers. But due to prevailing system of Zamidars or money lenders, farmers were trapped in perpetual debt. Farmers need to buy seeds, fertilizers and other things required for growing a crop, for buying all these things you need money so farmers took loans from Zamidars or money lenders who used to charge a very high interest rate on the principal amount. Farmers were unable to pay such a hefty amount and in such cases to get their money back money lenders or the Zamidars used to buy the whole produce of the farmers but, they paid very less amount to farmers because farmers did not have the bargaining power. Now to again sow their fields farmers required money so this cycle continued, and farmers were always in debt.   This process was very exploitative so to help the farmers and end this system government of India introduced APMC (Agriculture Produce Market Committee) Act. It was introduced in 1960’s at the very same time when green revolution started in India many experts believe that in the major of green revolution APMC Act played a major role. APMCs set up Mandis or Markets across India where farmer’s produce was sold. There are around 7000 APMCs in India at present. Now, the process of selling the produce is that after harvesting crops are brought to the Mandis or Markets where they sell the produce through auctioning or price discovery. Whom are the farmers selling the crops? Not to the government but the middlemen or Arhatiyas. Middlemen are people between the farmer and the retailer or big traders. For example, farmers sell their vegetables to the middlemen and then the vegetable vendor buys vegetable from the middleman, vegetable vendor will not buy directly from the farmers. Government gives license to these Middlemen; shops, storage facilities etc. are provided to them in APMC markets. Many people work in these APMCs, there is storage of grains, so it requires laborers, accountants so overall it is a self-thriving ecosystem. One thing which should be noted here is these APMC markets are regulated by state governments, a tax is charged on each transaction so in a way government knows at price produce is being sold. Now what about the produce that are not bought by the middlemen in these markets? This is being bought by the government at MSP (Minimum Support Price). MSP is constant throughout the country. MSP also ensured that produce bought be the middlemen were not below a certain price. When everything is so good are farmers happy? According to National Crime Bureau report 2018, 1,34,560 suicides were reported in India out of which 10,350 were farmers remember this was total number of reported cases. This system was good seeing 1960’s but with time we need to evolve similarly, not much was done to APMCs and some problems popped up. Middlemen started exploiting farmers they formed cartels or an understanding among themselves and started buying the produce at MSP only and sold to traders at a high rate. For example, MSP for onion is Rs.8.5 per kg (data as of February 06, 2019) but we buy onions at Rs 35 – 80 per kg depending on state. In a way we can say Minimum Support Prize became Maximum Selling Price. Voice arose from time to time to remove these defects and in response government brought the three Acts in 2020. These three farm Acts seek to replace ordinances issued in June 2020. These Acts envisage to bring change in some of the key aspects of the farm economy — trade in agricultural commodities, price assurance, farm services including contracts, and stock limits for essential commodities. These Acts sought to bring much needed reforms in the agricultural marketing system such as removing restrictions of private stock holding of agricultural produce or creating trading areas free of middlemen and take the market to the farmer. The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill 2020 or The Market Place Law We have already discussed the process currently in place well according to the new market place law, farmers can sell their produce anywhere not just in the APMC approved mandis or market places but literally anywhere i.e., they can sell inside the state, outside the state, or if they wish they can also sell it online. Which means according to union government this law is been brought in to give freedom of choice to farmers they will have a variety of marketplaces. The government says, this is actually going to do good to them because they can choose from several options. The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill 2020 or The Contract Farming Law Farmers can enter into ‘written agreements’ with anyone, including a company, and sell them their produce for a set period of time, as per the contract. In other words, companies can now have contracts with farmers for buying with farmers for buying their produce. They can set the price for the produce, the standards and qualities and other legalities can be mentioned beforehand. The Union government says this will protect and empower farmers to sell to anyone a whole seller, a retail giant or an exporter. They will have written contracts which will protect the farmer in case the buyer tries to cheat them. And they can also sell future produce today, according to the government.