TL;DR: Until now, farmers were at the mercy of middlemen to sell their produce.
With the new act Farmers are free to sell it to anyone [E.g grocery chains] directly in addition to the Govt guaranteed minimum price [a.k.a MSP]
So if Market price > MSP; Sell directly in the market. Else, govt will purchase the produce at a minimum guaranteed price. So in essence, govt is protecting the interests of the farmers.
The current protests are an amalgamation of disgruntled middlemen who are going to lose fat profits and some political parties trying to get mileage out of it.
http://egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/2020/222040.pdf
TL;DR: Until now, farmers were at the mercy of middlemen to sell their produce. With the new act Farmers are free to sell it to anyone [E.g grocery chains] directly in addition to the Govt guaranteed minimum price [a.k.a MSP] So if Market price > MSP; Sell directly in the market. Else, govt will purchase the produce at a minimum guaranteed price. So in essence, govt is protecting the interests of the farmers. The current protests are an amalgamation of disgruntled middlemen who are going to lose fat profits and some political parties trying to get mileage out of it.