Recent reforms

Story hook

It is 5 June 2020. India is in the third month of COVID lockdown. The Cabinet meets — virtually for some, masked-in-room for others — and approves three Ordinances:

1. Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020 — allows trade of agricultural produce outside the APMC (Agricultural Produce Market Committee) mandi system.
2. Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance, 2020 — provides a legal framework for contract farming.
3. Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 — removes cereal, pulses, oilseed, edible oil, onion, potato from stock limits under Essential Commodities Act 1955 (except during extraordinary circumstances).

The reforms — long advocated by Shanta Kumar Committee (2015), Ashok Dalwai Committee (2017), CACP, NITI Aayog — promise to dismantle the colonial-era APMC monopoly + open agriculture to private buyers + e-platforms + corporate processors.

By September 2020, all three pass Parliament as Acts. By November 2020, lakhs of farmers — primarily from Punjab, Haryana, western UP — converge on the borders of Delhi. They camp at Singhu, Tikri, and Ghazipur. The protests stretch into December's biting cold, January's republic day chaos, summer's heat, monsoon's rain. 750+ farmers die at the protest sites (Samyukta Kisan Morcha count). The Supreme Court appoints a 4-member committee (January 2021) — which finds 86% of consulted farmers support the laws but cannot defuse the protest.

On 19 November 2021, PM Modi announces — in a televised broadcast on Guru Nanak Jayanti — the repeal of all three farm laws. The Farm Laws Repeal Act, 2021 is passed within 5 minutes of opening proceedings on 29 November 2021 — no debate. The government simultaneously announces a committee to consider MSP guarantee + crop diversification.

The MSP Committee under Sanjay Agrawal (Former Agriculture Secretary) sits for 22 months before submitting its draft report in July 2024.

What happened? And what reform agenda remains for Indian agriculture?

Why this matters for UPSC

The 3 Farm Laws (2020-21) + MSP Committee (2022-24) are the highest-profile contemporary agricultural reform episode since 1991. UPSC will test it across GS-III (economy + agriculture), GS-II (federalism, parliamentary processes), and Essay. Prelims has already tested Farm Laws + MSP + e-NAM (2021, 2023, 2024). Mains questions on agricultural marketing reform appear in every cycle since 2020. Interview boards probe candidate's view on whether the laws should have been re-introduced.