APMC, MSP & New Farm Laws, 2020

The first major reform measure in the agricultural sector in India was introduced in 1960s with the introduction of Agriculture Produce Market Committees (APMCs). The reform was introduced with the intention of helping the farming community to get remunerative prices for their produce. The reform introduced with good intentions however got deteriorated over the period, depriving the farmers of remunerative prices for their produce. Another major reform introduced during the period had been the introduction of Minimum Support Prices (MSPs). MSP, it has been pointed out, has benefitted only 6% of the farmers in the country, the upper crust of the peasantry, primarily, the producers of two crops, Wheat & Rice, who hail from the States of Punjab and Haryana at the cost of 94% of the small & marginal farmers.APMC and the institution of MSP are said to have reduced agriculture to the level of an utterly uncompetitive sector. The New Farm Laws enacted in 2020 intend to usher in reforms that give additional options to the farmers to sell their produce beyond the limits of the APMCs.The book attempts to study and arrive at a realistic solution to the problem of agricultural reforms.