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Figure 4.5 Wheat/rice crops are ready for harvesting at many places and farmers in India are worried that they would incur huge losses due to the lockdown ensuing from the outbreak of COVID‐19.

4.6.3 Steps Taken by the Government to Announce Packages, Do They Support?

The short‐term lockdown resulting from outbreak of the COVID‐19 pandemic has interrupted the state supply of food and stock and is mainly influencing the economic strategy of the country. The advisory board of the government for political and fiscal concerns has informed in a report from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) that food grains constitute 77 million tons of cereals against a buffer supply requirement of 21 million tons on 1 April 2020. Moreover, this lockdown is a humanity‐related issue, in which, people are migrating back to the rural areas and reinforces the importance of having strong policies in place to tackle the decline in market availability for and sale of produce. The GoI has already announced that for the coming three months, 5 kg of free grains would be distributed to people registered under the National Food Security (NFS) Act. It is estimated that the FCI stockings may free up with help from the Government to help the migrants registered under the schemes from different states (Chakrabarti et al. 2019; Verma and Gustafsson 2020).

      To overcome the current situation, the Indian Finance Minister has proclaimed a financial assistance of 1.7 trillion or INR 1.7 lakh crore rupees as subsidy to the people below the poverty line, which include 800 million people nationwide. Moreover, the GoI has announced a scheme called PM‐KISAN for Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (Varshney et al. 2020a). This scheme was offered amounts of INR 2000 thrice to the Indian farmer after every fourth month by April 2020. Despite provision of this financial assistance by the government, experts have noted that 87 million farmers in India alone have refrained from expressing their optimism. However, it stops farmer during long lockdown period to express their main concern to the government (Jat et al. 2019; Yadav et al. 2019). Mandis in the states are currently closed on account of this lockdown, preventing an influx in the income of the farmers and harvesters. Farmers require money, particularly now, because it is the season of harvest. However, the lockdown ensuing from the COVID‐19 outbreak has impacted the mental stability and wellbeing of the farmers and is a precursor to a probable cash crash. Moreover, the government has not outlined a plan‐B to deal with this situation, though “having life, hoping future” is the message to uphold currently. Some experts have claimed that the announced relief packages are pitiable and not fulfilling the requirement of the farmers, which is a serious concern.

4.7 ICAR Initiatives

      In the state of Uttar Pradesh, after a complete lockdown Phase 1: 25 March 2020–14 April 2020 (21 days) of 17 days, the total cases of COVID‐19 have risen above 500 with 35 deaths, although approximately 119 have recovered. Fortunately, this pandemic has not yet reached the stage of community spread (after stage 2: 15 April 2020–3 May 2020 [19 days]). Owing to complete lockdown, the daily wage earners, agricultural marketers, agricultural farmers, consumers, and related stakeholders are likely to suffer enormously. Therefore, the Government of Uttar Pradesh has issued two office orders permitting suppliers to continue the movement of honey, vegetables, mushrooms, fruits, milk, and related horticultural produce in the state. Secondly, permission to avail plant protection chemicals, seed fertilizers, agricultural commodities, and farm machineries has been granted. The effects of these efforts are apparent in the urban areas, as witnessed by the lack of panic in the purchase of fruits and vegetables in the cities. The ICAR has also issued advisories on specific farm practices applicable to this state, which have been circulated among farmers in every district by the KVKs.

4.8 Impact on State Agriculture

      As the laborers from the nearby cities and Delhi have migrated to their respective villages, the availability of laborers for carrying out farm operations has increased. As a result, the daily wages at the village level have dropped by 15–20%. If available, their rates have increased by 30–40%. Due to reduced number of wholesalers in the mandis, the sale of vegetables has decreased, causing distress to the vegetable growers (Gaydon et al. 2017; Shyamsundar et al. 2019; Prasad 2020). However, the income of vegetable growers, and, in turn, the retailers has increased because of the higher prices quoted by them. The price of majority of the seasonal vegetables like cucurbits, brinjal, cabbage, potato, cauliflower, etc. has increased by 40–45%. Similarly, the fruit prices such as apple, grapes, banana, coconut, oranges, and many more have increased by 30–40%. Similarly, dairy farmers are experiencing the crisis of increased rates of feeds and concentrates (Gupta et al. 2020a,b). They need to sell milk at lower prices than the prevailing rates and even less quantities.

4.9 Conclusion

      After lockdown, people below the poverty line are likely to overcome the impact slowly. However, farmers are expecting a recovery from the anticipated cash crash. A declaration of subvention for three to six months was previously assessed, while an initial step toward defeating the COVID‐19 has received an overwhelming response. However, currently, harvesters are expecting clarification on the following questions: what shall be the source of income for the farmers? and will the money come from own sources? What is the solution to mitigate the issue of migrated labor? These issues are not addressed in the present plan. An extension of the lockdown shall allow generation of more factors, allowing further predictions of its impact on the economy of the farmers.

      The government of all countries should take strict and significant actions to keep up with the control of the virus. Socioeconomic decisions of the respective countries could significantly impact the final outcome and an alarming situation in the future could be predicted, because we have also СКАЧАТЬ