Agriculture Reforms: What is in the Farmers' Interest?

The Government of India brought two new laws and amended an earlier one, all the three dealing with Agriculture in India, in 2020. The two new laws seek to promote barrier-free inter-state and intra-state trade in agricultural produce and allow farmers to engage with processors, aggregators, wholesalers, large retailers, exporters in the form of contract farming. The third is an amendment to the Essential Commodities Act to liberalize the regulatory environment around stock holding limits for food items. These changes seek to pave the way for greater private investment in agriculture value chains and modernise Indian agriculture. The government of India claims that these reforms were long pending and will hugely benefit Indian farmers while some farmers' groups vehemently contest these claims. In this paper, we detail the issues involved and review both sides of the argument. We find strong rationale behind these reforms and believe that these reforms are a step in the right direction for the future of Indian farmers.