Indian economic reforms began in July 1991 with a focus on industrializing the economy for faster economic development. . During the last three decades, whether the economic reform programme has initiated structural transformation of the Indian economy is still questionable. The agricultural sector’s contribution to the GDP has come down significantly which is expected. However, the dependence of workforce on agricultural sector continues to be high at 44%. The terms of trade have also remained mostly against agriculture and thus, the cost of economic transformation has shifted to agriculture. The economic reform programme could not generate the required dynamism to create enough employment opportunities for the low skill jobs for the rural workforce. In fact, the agricultural sectors in most of the south Asian countries are in similar situation. Agriculture and agricultural markets, as per the Indian constitution, like in some other south Asian countries like Pakistan, are state subjects though the Union government of India has been advising states on the direction of agricultural reforms since the early 2000s in the form of Model Acts for amending state APMC Acts of 1960s and 1970s but the state governments have been carrying out reforms as per their own understanding of the local conditions. At the same time, agricultural sector in India has been facing a multidimensional crisis for some time now including indebtedness of farmers’ and suicides by the landowners and landless farm workers, including women.

It is important to recognize that agriculture in India is quite heterogeneous across states in terms of its nature and level of development and also its problems and policy solutions. One size does not seem to fit all. However, the Union Government of India, during the peak period of Covid-19 pandemic, issued three agricultural market reform ordinances (two new ordinances on farm produce wholesale markets, contract farming and one on amendment to the Essential Commodities Act) in June 2020 and then hurriedly pushed them through the parliament as Acts in September 2020 without following proper procedures and stakeholder consultations with the objective of freeing farm produce markets and attracting private investment in such markets and market channels like contract farming or private wholesale markets.

The various farmer unions which had been demanding freedom from debt and minimum support price (MSP) guarantee from the Government of India for some time, started protests against the farm laws first in Punjab, then Haryana and later across many states in India. Ever since the protests moved to the outskirts of Delhi since late November 2020, there have been several rounds of talks between the farmer unions and the Union government, but no amicable/acceptable solution has been reached. The farmers unions are demanding the repeal of the two new laws (the farmer produce trade and commerce Act which limits the domain of APMCs and makes rest of the trade area free from any regulation, and the Contract Farming Act ) which have been framed by the union government on the domain of states so far, and the amendment to the essential commodities Act which liberalizes the stocking of farm produce by processors, exporters and traders and restricts the government power to intervene to contain prices, while the Union government has been defending the goodness and rationale for the new laws as being beneficial for farmers and necessary for integration of India’s farm produce markets, and only agreeing to amend them wherever farmers union find them problematic. The three contentious farm laws have far reaching consequences both for the producers and the consumers. But it is a big opening in the agribusiness sector for the corporate players where they are being promised one nation-one market, brought in the name of farmer benefits in terms of channel choices and higher prices and market linkage.This long drawn and sustained protest has pinpointed the deep agricultural and agrarian crisis and the role of public policy and regulation for helping it survive the onslaught of the market and also to benefit from it. At the same time, it is not just about India as many other South Asian Countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh or even Sri Lanka have similar agrarian and agricultural market context and governance structures including federal structure. Therefore, it is important to examine the various issues of regulation, policy and practice from a smallholder perspective as most of the Asian countries have predominance of smallholder farms, and to understand the nature and extent of the agrarian crisis and the impact of new farm laws in India on small producers and farm and allied sector workers. This would go a long way in framing a policy and stakeholder response to the ongoing and upcoming regulatory and policy changes including those relating to land and labour.

Research articles not exceeding 8000 words exclusively prepared for the special issue along with an abstract of 150-200 words are invited from development studies scholars, agricultural economists, sociologists, anthropologists, geographers, political scientists, and legal and public policy experts to be submitted online by the 30th of June 2021 on the following and similar topics and aspects of the larger context: 1. Implications of India’s three farm laws for small farmers and consumers from farmer livelihood and food security perspective 2. Nature and dynamics of agrarian crisis in South Asia and individual countries as informed by primary or secondary data analysis 3. Nature and practice of contract farming in any Asian country and lessons for making it inclusive and effective and the role of regulatory and policy systems 4. Experience of food supermarkets in terms of their farmer interface and consumer impact and policy and practice issues 5. Studies of private wholesale markets in India or any other south Asian country 6. Comparative studies of various produce market channels in terms of small producer inclusion, exclusion, benefit and other implications for agricultural markets and the sector. 7. Global experience of corporate entry in farm sector and implications and lessons for India and/or south Asia with case studies from Latin America, Africa, South East Asia and China 8. Improving governance of land and produce markets in South Asian countries in general or specific countries 9. Dynamics of and issue in traditional produce wholesale market governance and implications for small farmers10. Case studies of successful or failed alternative channels like co-operative or producer companies in delivering small farmer livelihoods 11. Experience of price protection for small farmers globally and lessons for south Asia 12. Experience of farmers’ markets globally and contrast with India and other south Asian countries 13. Comparative experience of agricultural produce and land market reforms across south Asia and lessons. 14. Experience and dynamics of farmers’ movements, state response and lessons for public policy. 15. Gender implications of traditional and modern farm produce markets and role of women farmer centric NGOs in such markets. 16. Value chain studies of specific farm produce in terms of stakeholder analysis and public policy issues.

The submitted papers, besides desk review based rejection, would be put through a double blind review process and need to be revised by authors in a time bound manner for being accepted. Accepted papers will be published in the December 2021 issue of the journal. The authors desirous of submitting the paper are requested to strictly follow journal guidelines available on the website while writing the papers.