Protesting ‘farmers’ whine about produce being exploited at Mandis, after forcing Modi govt to withdraw Farm Laws: Why their WTO demand makes no sense

The three now-repealed agriculture reforms (Farm Laws) aimed to modernise the sector by reducing dependency on middlemen. The Modi government’s visionary step would have directly benefited the farmers.

However, the ambitious move was forced away from reality as the “farmer leaders” claimed it would undermine the traditional mandi system. The government of India asserted that the reforms would empower the farmers. It ensured they would receive fair prices for the products, but the protesting farmers did not budge and forced the government to withdraw the laws.

One of the now-repealed acts was the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act or FPTC Act. The government of India enacted it to give farmers the freedom to sell farm produce anywhere in the country, within APMC mandis or outside them. It also allowed the setting up of an electronic platform to sell and purchase farm produce. There was a provision to prescribe modalities for registering traders and trade transactions in trade areas. In short, it would help the farmers by providing them with a broader market without forcing them to sell the produce in AMPC mandis. Interestingly, in case the system did not work as intended, there also was a provision for government intervention. However, the farmer unions claimed that the government planned to destroy the NDI system.

Two years after forcing the government to backtrack the farm laws which were meant to protect farmers from the exploitation of middlemen at Mandis, the farmers are again on the streets, claiming that 87% of the product is “exploited” at the Mandis. The same Mandis that the farmers aimed to protect during the previous protests caused thousands of crores of rupees worth of losses to the businesses in and around Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh.