By revisiting farm reform, PM Modi has left the future of the contentious ‚AgriStack‘ uncertain
India has scrapped plans to reform its agriculture sector – a decision that looks like a win for the nation’s farmers, but a setback for Big Tech. Reform of India’s agricultural sector, which employs over half the nation’s workforce, is a signature policy of prime minister Narendra Modi. In 2020 his government passed laws that would erode long-standing policies such as guaranteed floor prices for commodities, with government the buyer of last resort. Indian farmers are often dependent on government assistance and guaranteed pricing, so have protested vigorously for over a year because they feel that a more open market will lead to lower prices and see the sector consolidate into the hands of big players. Modi insisted that the sector must be reformed and face competition. Modi’s plan included measures to improve farmers‘ productivity, so that even the hundred million farms with two hectares or less of land could deliver a livelihood to their owners. Food security for India is another goal, as more productive land could reduce the need for food imports. Yet another goal n the list was reducing subsidies. Many of those plans centred on an effort called AgriStack – a platform envisaged to let farmers manage their land, participate in electronic markets to sell their produce, and interact digitally with government to secure subsidies based on uploads of data such as descriptions of the state of their soil. India’s farmers did not like the reform legislation, because they feared it would drive prices down and make it impossible to make a living from the land. Many protested vigorously both before and since the laws were introduced.
