Regulating agricultural markets in India: a smallholder perspective

Abstract

The Orient BlackSwan ‘Policy Studies’ series is designed to address, investigate, and analyse public policy in the field of governance.

In 2020, contentious agricultural market Acts, popularly known as the Farm Laws, were passed. This led to massive protests by farmers at Delhi’s borders for over a year, at great cost to their lives and livelihood. Though repealed in 2021, these Acts need urgent analysis as they represented a fundamental reorientation of the existing regulatory framework into a package of ‘reform’ measures, aimed at opening up the domains of agricultural production, trade, and storage to the private sector. Regulating Agricultural Markets in India, the first book in our ‘Policy Studies’ series to examine agricultural market reforms, offers a comprehensive view of changing regulations at the state and the Union levels.

The book studies various agricultural market regulation reforms carried out over two decades, such as the Model APMC Act of 2003, the Model APLM Act of 2017, and the Model Contract Farming Act of 2018. The author examines the legality of MSP and questions the 2020 Farm Acts from the oft-neglected perspective of the small farmer. The book also observes a shift away from regulation towards facilitation and promotion of markets, especially private markets, and offers suggestions for more inclusive and effective regulation.

This book will interest scholars and practitioners of economics and agribusiness management, research institutes, think tanks, policymakers, journalists, farmer organisations and NGOs working on India’s agricultural market regulation and interventions.