Farmer’s Bill: what, who and how

A lot has been heard about the farm bills that were recently passed by the Rajya Sabha.
Here’s an attempt to understand WHY it is a matter of concern to the farmers, and WHY are they protesting.

Let’s first understand the bills:

(i) The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020
Acc. to this, the farmers can now sell their produce to non-regulated markets. This means, instead of the farmer having to go to a govt controlled Mandi, they can go directly to say a the buyer.

(ii) The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020:
A buyer & a farmer can have a contract in place much before the production even commences.

(iii) The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020
deregulates the production, storage, movement and sale of several major food items, including cereals, onions oils etc; unless in case of extraordinary circumstance

Sure, these changes to the bill look positive!
Don’t we all love privatisation? This does give an opportunity to the farmers to be their own king in a way; doesn’t it?

Let’s look at it this way: