 Hello and welcome to NewsClick. A lot is being reported and often mis-reported about the ongoing farmers' agitation at Delhi and its borders. While mainstream media is more concerned with covering of the so-called drama of it, the real question to ask is, why are farmers on the streets? In September this year, three agriculture-related laws were rammed through the parliament by the Modi government. This law will change the way cultivation, sale purchase, storage and pricing of agri-produced is done. Big business and traders will benefit, farmers and consumers will lose out. What are these three laws and what will they mean? The first is crapping APMC laws. Agriculture-produced market committees or Mondays are designated centres created by state governments where agri-produced can be sold by farmers to licensed persons or commissioned agents. Its purpose was to prevent fleasing of farmers by greedy and powerful traders and procuring food grain at minimum support price or MSP to distribute through the public distribution system that is previous. So what does it mean to scrap it? Firstly, as a result of this, agri-businesses and big traders will buy directly from the farmers at whatever price they offer. This means that the farmers will no longer get MSP for their crops. Secondly, the government will not procure enough grain to channelize into public distribution system that is previous. As a result, farmers and millions of poor people who are dependent on this ration grains for survival will suffer. The second is changes in essential commodities act. Historically, the ECA empowered the government to 1. Lay limits to amounts of stocks traders or companies could keep and 2. Cap sales prices of the produce. The purpose was to prevent hoarding and black marketing by big traders. The new law amended the ECA provisions. This means that now not only will all limits on stocks be removed but also there will be no cap on sale prices. It will also help big agro processing companies including foreign bees to freely buy up food grains or even perishables disregarding any effect this may have on prices or their availability. Traders can also hoard commodities to drive up prices as is often seen in onions and potatoes. In short, it is nothing but a license to profit from hunger. The third and final is contract farming. This law lays down how farmers can enter into agreements with sponsor parties which are usually a big company often involved in agro processing to undertake contract farming that is cultivating and providing certain specified produce in certain quantities at a fixed price. This will lead to farmers becoming dependent on sponsor for whatever price they offer. Additionally, companies will also start pushing farmers to produce only certain kind of crops say potatoes for chips or tomatoes for ketchup causing decline in food grain output of the country and opening the doors to other companies offering to import the food grain. In other words, the country's food security may be in danger. In case of dispute, farmers will have to fight costly legal battle with these big companies. Big farmers will try to evict sharecroppers and squeeze agricultural labours to get more profit. All in all, it is safe to say that the only people benefiting from these laws will be big companies and corporate houses. For the farmers across the nation, these laws, as they say, will be a death sentence.