{"id":72450,"date":"2020-12-12T15:05:24","date_gmt":"2020-12-12T09:35:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=72450"},"modified":"2020-12-12T15:18:35","modified_gmt":"2020-12-12T09:48:35","slug":"how-outcome-of-bihars-apmc-repeal-solidifies-concerns-of-farmers-against-farm-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/how-outcome-of-bihars-apmc-repeal-solidifies-concerns-of-farmers-against-farm-bills\/","title":{"rendered":"Qrious Project: How outcome of Bihar\u2019s APMC repeal, solidifies concerns of farmer\u2019s against farm bills?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently, New Delhi witnessed a march by Indian Farmers in order to protest against the 3 new farms bills i.e., which are Farmers\u2019 (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bills<\/a>, the Farmers\u2019 Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill<\/a> and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill<\/a>. These bills look to break the monopoly of middlemen in APMCs and create a free market to allow farmers to sell outside APMC mandis in India.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whether the concerns of farmers carry enough weight or not can be assessed through the Outcomes of Bihar\u2019s APMC act abolishment which was almost a similar attempt to provide a free market for agricultural produce.<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the Concerns raised by Farmers against the Farm bills? <\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Critics have raised their concerns against all 3 farm laws, for example; Essential commodities (amendment) act removes major commodities from the essential list, in effect, allowing their hoarding. However Major cause of concern for the farmers is related to the FPTC bill that might result in the closure of Mandis and the discontinuation of the MSP system due to that. Thereby leaving farmers at the mercy of big corporates.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC)? <\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

An Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) is a statutory market committee constituted by a State Government to facilitate the trade in certain notified agricultural or horticultural or livestock products. APMCs are responsible to ensure transparency in the pricing system, payment for agricultural produce to farmers.<\/span><\/p>\n

APMCs are regulated by states through their adoption of the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bihar Government repealed the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act in 2006 in a few months after assuming power in 2005. It shut down the mandi (wholesale markets for agricultural produce) system in 2006.<\/span><\/p>\n

Outcomes of Bihar\u2019s APMC act abolishment? <\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

The outcomes of the Bihar APMC act have been a mixed bag of results. However, critics have pointed out major negative impacts on the lives of Bihar farmers but it didn\u2019t materialize in any big protest due to a lack of awareness and unity among the farmers, as per the experts;<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. First, before the scrapping of the APMC Act, farmers would sell their produce to the market committees where the minimum price was guaranteed. But, scrapping of the system led to distress sell by the farmers due to lack of a storage facility.<\/span>\n