Addressing The Impacts Of The Pandemic On The Agriculture Sectors
As we all know, in the early stages of COVID-19 in 2020, there was no vaccine or treatment available to protect people against infection. As infections increased, the government implemented lockdowns, closed borders, and imposed travel limits to prevent the virus from spreading—all of these preventive measures to keep the epidemic under control affected the global economy. Food processing plants, industrial units, and all other non-essential enterprises in India were shut down during the initial phase of the lockdown, affecting the marketing and trade of agricultural products and inputs. While social media has both benefits and drawbacks, rumours travel faster and further than truth. For example, unsubstantiated ‘fake news and rumours were circulating on messaging platforms, claiming that the coronavirus could be transmitted via poultry birds. As a result, people stopped consuming eggs and chicken; many backyard poultry owners decided to bury young chicks and fully matured birds to save money on the future costs of keeping them alive without any monetary returns. Previously bird flu (avian influenza) hit the industry hard in 2006. But then, the fears were based upon facts. This was not the case in the current corona crisis. Travel and movement limitations impacted goat rearing, as most pastoralists prefer grazing choices for their goats over stall feeding, following traditional practices. Only the dairy industry was unaffected by the lockdown since milk is considered an essential product.
Negative impacts of COVID-19 on agriculture and allied sectors in the First wave (2020) Due to the nationwide lockdown, markets and food processing industries were shut down. As a result, large quantities of fruits, flowers, and vegetables were wasted due to the lack of storage/ cold storage facilities available in the village. So farm owners opened their farms and distributed free fruits, vegetables, and perishable farm produce to the villagers. Unfortunately, some local traders took advantage of this situation and bought produce from farmers at lower rates and sold it at high prices in the cities or hoarded it to sell it later when the prices go up. When farmers were preparing for the monsoon season, the cost of Agriculture NGO in India input was relatively high due to increased demand; there was no supply as most industries were closed. Earlier, farmers used to procure agricultural inputs on credit which was accepted, but now shopkeepers and traders are unwilling to provide credit facilities to the farmers due to uncertainty of life because of the pandemic. All these constraints and challenges related to agricultural trade, the shortage of agricultural inputs, and the sale of produce, caused farmers to change their cropping patterns in the Kharif season in 2020. They preferred to cultivate crops with long shelf life rather than perishable ones.
WOTR’S COVID-19 Rapid Response There were many challenges, but farmers who generally face uncertainty, have their ways to deal with them. To back up that strength, WOTR supported many farmers in the project villages through humanitarian aid and various training events that helped continue agriculture without interruption. The Farmer producer organization (FPO) is encouraged and facilitated across WOTR’s project villages. A group of neighbouring villages collectively form one FPO through which they can collectively sell their produce directly to the food processing units or big traders for a fair price and procure farm inputs in a large quantity directly from the manufacturer at discounted prices. In this process, the farmers save a little and earn a little more than the individual trading options.