The Indian Economy is considered as an agrarian economy. In India, more than 50% of the workforce is engaged into agriculture which contributes around 17-18% to the GDP and hence regarded as largest contributor to economy of the country.

In the September, 2020 the Government of India had introduced Farm Bills which were passed amidst the protest. The Farm Bills is the compilation of three laws which seeks to regulate such large sector of the Indian Economy. The Farms Bill attracted a lot of resistance from the farmers of the nation and regarded these laws as "pro-corporate law". In order to put a stop to these protest, Supreme Court of India in January 2021 stayed the implementation of the legislation and appointed a committee for analysing the grievances of the farmers. However, in March 2021 Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare told the Parliament that the implementation of laws has been stayed till further order.

The Farm Bills consists of the following three laws:

1) Farmer’s Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020

The object of this legislation is to facilitate farmers to sell their produce outside the State regulated physical markets notified under Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee Laws (APMC) laws. The Act also provides for online selling system of produce by famers to the traders. It further provides for intra and inter-state selling of produce and state government cannot levy any kind of fees or cess on the same.

2) Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020

The second wing of the farm laws introduces the concept of contract farming. The provisions of this legislation provide that farmers can enter into an agreement with the buyer to sell their produce at pre-determined prices. The buyer under this Act is called sponsor who could be an individual, companies, partnership firms, limited liability groups, and societies. The mutually agreed terms of the farming contract would include supply, quality, standards, price, as well as farm services. The duration of the contract could be one cropping cycle or the maximum period of five years. The produce under farming agreements are exempted from the State Acts, MSPs and stock-limit obligations. The legislation further provides for mechanism of dispute arising from farming agreements. It provides for three-level dispute resolution system i.e. the conciliation board (comprising representatives of parties to the agreement), the sub-divisional magistrate, and appellate authority.

3) Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020

The third piece of legislation to the Farm laws is an amendment to the existing Essential Commodities Act, 1955. The purpose of this law is to regulate production, supply, and distribution of certain key commodities by the government. The Act lists down certain commodities as "essentials" thereby government can regulate its prices and stock-holding limits. Basically, government can decide the prices of such "essential" commodities so that by virtue of its being essential it could be made available to masses. The stockholding limit is calculated on a formula which in layman's term means that such commodities cannot be hoarded of black-marketed. The amendment to this Act has removed cereals, pulses, oilseeds, edible oils, onion, and potatoes from the list of essential commodities.

EFFECT OF THE FARM LAWS

Under the packaging of Farm Bills government has implemented three important legislations which seek to regulate and change farming practices in the country. If the Farm laws has been read as whole in consonance with each other it purports to have following effect:

• The farmers are enabled to sell their produce outside the APMC and also through electronic mode just like e-commerce websites by the novel laws. But, it fails to recognize the situation of the farmers in country, especially those of poor farmers. They are not technologically advanced or rich enough to sell their produce outside the APMC or mandis, such farmers are bound to sell their produce in respective APMC. Due to increased competition, whichever APMC or e-trading provides more remuneration, big farmers are tend to sell their produce to such buyers which thereby result into closure of small and less active APMC or mandis and eventually resulting into the loss of small farmers.
• In India, still the major chunk of farming is depended upon monsoon which eventually decides the life of the produce. The farming agreements are based upon pre-determined price subject to agreed mutual terms like that of supply, quality standards etc. The sponsors of such produce can be big firms as per the new law. Since the majority of farmer's produce are depended upon monsoon, the quantity of supply and its quality are subject to natural forces. The sponsors are allowed to inspect the produce. Since, the stipulation of quality standards were the basic mutually agreed clauses of farming agreement, the sponsors can rescind the same on its breach. Furthermore, there won't be any state intervention in such agreement in the form of MSP or stock-limit obligations, therefore resulting in total loss of produce in cases of compromise on the aforementioned terms. Also furthermore, the famers are subject to manipulation by the big corporate houses. The corporate houses have separate legal team to deal with conciliation matters unlike the farmers of the nation and hence they could be easily exploited by the giants of corporate world.
• The amendment to the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 delisted the goods like cereals, pulses, oilseeds, edible oils, onion, and potatoes from the list of essential commodities. The mentioned goods are daily consuming goods in any household and thereby essential. The removal of such goods from the list suggests that government will not stop its hoarding or black marketing unless there are situations like war, famine, extraordinary price rise, and natural calamity of grave nature. It furthermore suggests that government will not regulate its price since it does not fall under the category of essentials. The said amendment will eventually impact poor and middle-class population of the country.

The Farm laws prima facie appears to be a progressive step but it overlooks the conditions of the farmers of the nation and hence filled with lacunas, thereby defeats the purpose of these laws. The analysis of the cumulative effect of abovementioned law suggests that implementation of the Farm Laws will devastatingly affect the poor farmers and lower income group population the country.

The protest of the farmers in the nation is based on the pretext that the present laws are far from reality. The farmers' contention is that their condition was not taken into consideration before framing of these laws. Furthermore, the protesting group contends that the Farm Laws seek to regulate the farming practice in the country but it nowhere mentions about MSPs, so there might be a possibility that it will be revoked in the future. Also, the legislation suggests about direct dealing with the corporate giants but the farmers are not well equipped for the same; as they lack professional negotiating skills and a legal team to deal with the disputes if arisen. The present status of the protest is that, the famers want repeal of such laws and not ready for discussion with the government. The present package of legislation is progressive and a way forward in the farming practices of India but at the same time it is delusion as being far from the reality and its implementation will be preposterous. However, with significant changes and empowerment of poor farmers it could be implemented in near future.