Weakening mandis to rising inequality: Here's why new laws worry farmers

The ongoing agitation in Delhi by farmers and farmers' unions from across India, especially from Punjab and Haryana, seeks to pressure the Centre to withdraw the laws

The new farm laws that aim to double farmers’ income in two years by deregulating agricultural markets may further widen the inequalities in the sector, shows our analysis of similar legislations from the past. By weakening the government’s price guarantee system, the laws may end up hurting small and poor farmers, who form 80% of the sector and 23% of those who live below the poverty line, say critics.

The privatisation of the sugarcane industry in 1998 and the deregulation of Bihar’s Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC), the state-regulated marketing board, in 2006 removed licensing barriers to agricultural markets. But, as