One of the arguments in favour of the new farm laws is that the reduced role of APMCs & state procurement may increase the diversity of crops. But what does the data indicate about the cropping pattern in various states over the 15 years between 2004-05 and 2018-19? It has been over a month that farmers have been protesting near Delhi against the three Farm Laws that were passed in September’2020. While farmers across the country have joined this protest, most of the representation at the protests in Delhi has been from farmers of Punjab & Haryana along with farmers even from Rajasthan. Arguments both in favour & against these laws are being made by multiple parties. Lack of assurance in these laws about the Minimum Support Price (MSP), reduced role of APMCs, etc., are a few of the apprehensions of the protesting farmers. Punjab & Haryana are among the states, where the greatest procurement of Rice & Wheat is done by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) through APMCs. This is probably one of the reasons behind the larger representation of farmers from these states. Those in support of the new farm laws argue that the reduced role of APMCs & FCI and hence dependence on MSP would result in the increased diversity of crops. The argument being that the farmers in these states largely cultivate Rice, Wheat, and few other crops with guaranteed procurement by FCI. In this story, we take a look at the data of cropping patterns in a few states between 2004-05 and 2018-19 to analyse if there is any correlation between the abolition or reduced role of APMCs and the cropping patterns. APMC Acts are not implemented uniformly across the states Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMCs) are marketing boards established by State Governments to ensure farmers get a fair price for their produce. The 2003 Model APMC Act, provided new guidelines regarding Agriculture Marketing. Since agriculture is a state subject, it was left to the states to legislate their own APMC law. While most of the states have enacted an APMC law, there are certain exceptions. While few of the Northeastern States have not implemented the APMC law, Bihar & Kerala are the larger states where APMCs do not exist. Bihar has repealed the APMC act in 2006. We take a look at a few of the States along with Bihar. The information is taken from RBI’s Handbook of Statistics on Indian States under the head “Agriculture & Allied”. 10 major categories of crops across the states have been considered for the analysis – Rice, Wheat, Pulses, Coarse grains, fruits, Vegetables, Oil Seeds, Sugarcane, Cotton & Raw Jute. Bihar: No major change in the Area cultivated under Rice & Wheat In 2004-05, Rice was sown in 31.2 lakh hectares and Wheat in 20.2 lakh hectares in the state of Bihar. Both these crops constituted around 65% of the total sown area (79.4 Lakh hectares) across the earlier mentioned 10 crop categories By 2018-19, the total area under cultivation for these crops in Bihar reached 80.9 lakh hectares, a marginal increase compared to 2004-05. The highest during the period was 2007-08, with 85.4 lakh hectares. As stated earlier, Bihar repealed the APMC Act in 2006. The data over the period indicates that there is no major change observed in the extent of land being used for Rice and Wheat cultivation. The share of land being used for cultivation of Rice & Wheat remained around 65% in all these years with the exception of 2010-11 when the area under Rice cultivation was less than the other years. While there is no major change in Rice & Wheat cultivation, there has been a shift in trends for other crops. The area under cultivation of pulses reduced from around 6.5 lakh hectares in 2004-05 to around 4.79 lakh hectares in 2018-19. Oil Seeds and Raw Jute also saw a reduction in the area of cultivation. On the other hand, the area under cultivation of Sugarcane has more than doubled to 2.25 lakh hectares in 2018-19 compared to 1.04 lakh hectares in 2004-05. This increase in the cultivation of Sugarcane is observed since 2010-11. Punjab: Increase in area under cultivation of Rice & Vegetables, decrease in the case of Coarse grains & Cotton There has only been a marginal increase in the total area cultivated in Punjab for the aforementioned crops over the 15-year period (2004-05 to 2018-19), from 72.4 lakh hectares to 75.1 lakh hectares. As highlighted earlier, Punjab is one of the states where the major procurement of Rice & Wheat happens through FCI and hence MSP is important for the farmers. A major portion of the land under cultivation in Punjab is for Rice & Wheat. Over this 15-year period, the proportion of land under cultivation for these two crops has also increased from around 84% to 88%.