Farm Bills Part 2 – Resources
In this post, we cover the key points of each of the Acts. If you would like to read the Acts themselves, or view some other resources, the links can be found at the bottom. For me, it was this three hour video that cleared up most of my doubts
Three laws were passed:
The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020, and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020.
The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act is not what the hullabaloo is about. This law is an amendment to the 1955 Essential Commodities Act and it allows the government to regulate the supply of certain food items only under extraordinary circumstances (e.g. war, famine). Limits on stocks can only be implemented if there are steep price rises (the act specifies what constitutes a steep price rise).
Before we get into this next law, I found this example helpful in understanding it. Now if you sell clothes in India, you have the ability to sell it anywhere in India – if I manufacture clothing items in Tamil Nadu, I can sell them in Bihar and vice versa. However, farmers do not have this option. Due to the APMC Act, farmers have to sell their produce at a specific mandi (or ‘market’).
The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act essentially allows inter and intra-state trade of produce beyond the physical premises of the APMC mandis. The Act specifies that state governments are prohibited from levying any market fee, cess, or levy outside of the APMC mandis. The Act also sets up a dispute resolution mechanism (which we will discuss in greater detail in a later post).
The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act is a follow up on the previous law. It creates a framework for agreements between farmers and companies and other buyers, and places compliances on quality and standards. The Act also includes a three-level dispute settlement mechanism: the conciliation board, Sub-Divisional Magistrate and Appellate Authority.
Obviously this is not it (each Act is in fact 8 pages each) but these are the key points. Regardless of what you see on social media (yes, I am including this post), please just read the laws yourself.
Links to the Acts:
http://egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/2020/222039.pdf
http://egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/2020/222040.pdf
Other helpful resources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcqVWFZXyaE
https://www.orfonline.org/research/intellectual-biography-india-new-farm-laws/