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COVID-19's Impact on Indian Agriculture

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed immediate challenges to India's agricultural sector. Farmers are currently harvesting crops like wheat, gram, lentils and mustard during the peak rabi season. The nationwide lockdown has also affected transportation of harvested crops. In response, the Indian government announced financial support packages for farmers totaling over $22 billion. This included advance payment of income support to farmers and increased wages for rural employment program workers. Mitigation measures are needed to protect vulnerable farmers and farm laborers during this difficult time. Maintaining food and nutrition security while raising farmers' incomes will also be important for transforming India's food system in the post-COVID era.

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37 views6 pages

COVID-19's Impact on Indian Agriculture

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed immediate challenges to India's agricultural sector. Farmers are currently harvesting crops like wheat, gram, lentils and mustard during the peak rabi season. The nationwide lockdown has also affected transportation of harvested crops. In response, the Indian government announced financial support packages for farmers totaling over $22 billion. This included advance payment of income support to farmers and increased wages for rural employment program workers. Mitigation measures are needed to protect vulnerable farmers and farm laborers during this difficult time. Maintaining food and nutrition security while raising farmers' incomes will also be important for transforming India's food system in the post-COVID era.

Uploaded by

Alok shah
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© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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ITM

UNIVERSITY
(GWALIOR)
Topic:- Impact of COVID-19 on Agricultural
activities of farmers.
[Link].- BAGN1AG17019
Subject- RAWE-411(C) Rural Agricultural Work
Experience (Rural Economics)
Branch- [Link]. Ag Sem.- 7th Batch- B
Submitted To- Dr. Dinesh Baboo Tyagi
Submitted By- Amit Singh Rathore
Impact of Covid-19 on the
agricultural activities of farmers.
The ongoing health crisis around COVID19 has affected all
walks of life. Protecting lives of people suffering from the
disease as well as frontline health responders have been the
priority of nations. Governments have swung into actions
since the Corona virus attack created an unprecedented
situation. India declared a three-week nation-wide lockdown
till mid-April in the initial phase, which was subsequently
extended for achieving satisfactory containment of the virus
spread.
During these challenging times, how does Indian Agriculture
respond to the crisis and how do government measures
affect 140 million farm households across the country and
thereafter impact the economy of a very important country in
the developing world? We assess the immediate challenges
that COVID19 has posed to the farm sector and suggest
mitigation measures to ensure a sustainable food system in
the post-crisis period.
Immediately after the nation-wide lockdown was
announced, the Indian Finance Minister declared an
INR 1.7 trillion package, mostly to protect the
vulnerable sections (including farmers) from any
adverse impacts of the Corona pandemic. The
announcement, among a slew of benefits, contained
advance release of INR 2000 to bank accounts of
farmers as income support under PM-KISAN scheme.
The Government also raised the wage rate for workers
engaged under the NREGS, world’s largest wage
guarantee scheme.
Under the special scheme to take care of the
vulnerable population, Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan
Yojana (Prime Minister’s scheme for welfare of the
poor), has been announced.
Immediate Challenges
In spite of all these measures and in view of
continuing restrictions on movements of people
and vehicular traffic, concerns have been raised
regarding negative implications of COVID19
pandemic on the farm economy. This is the peak
of rabi season in India and crops like wheat, gram,
lentil, mustard, etc. (including paddy in irrigated
tracts) are at harvestable stage or almost
reaching maturity.
As weather has been very erratic over past few
months in many parts, harvested produce must
also be protected from such risks.
As weather has been very erratic over past few
months in many parts, harvested produce must
also be protected from such risks
Mitigation Measures
The poor sections of society are always the
hardest hit in any disaster or pandemic situation.
With about 85 percent of Indian farm households
being small and marginal farmers, and a
significant part of the population being landless
farm laborers, welfare measures to contain any
damage from COVID are definitely going to help
them with sincere implementation.
Many climate models predict a favorable monsoon in
the 2020 season (the India Meteorological Depar tment
has also since officially announced) as the El-Nino
weather phenomenon, that disrupts rainfall in India, is
not evident. This is indeed a good news in the COVID
scenario, assuming agriculture can practice largely
unscathed.
Good news is that Government of India has now
increased its focus on nutrition (besides food)- security
and raising farmers’ income (rather than enhancing farm
productivity). Changing the consumer behavior with
suitable programs and incentives is already in the
agenda. For all these to happen, the existing landscape
of policy incentives that favor the two big staples of
wheat and rice has to change. Designing agricultural
policies, post-COVID19 scenario, must include these
imperatives for a food systems transformation in India.

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