Farmers worst hit in India
Suffering is not new for Indian farmers as they are well accustomed to the term. But like other people, this year has been worst nightmare for agriculture and farmers’ sufferings have doubled up. Many farmers are saying no to vegetable farming this season, making you miss vegetables in your plates soon. They are doing this after having borne immense losses in the first half of 2020.
Farmers among the worst hit in India
Agriculture sector has been worst hit due to coronavirus outbreak and lockdown measures taken by the government to contain it. As immeasurable bulk of vegetables rot, farmers found themselves not being able to manage even bread and butter. Most of the farmers made a meagre to zero earning. Moreover, they suffered huge losses with their ready crop seeing no buyers.
Not only this. As migrant laborers’ moved towards their hometowns, farmers in many regions saw huge difficulties to cut their crops. The coronavirus lockdown was the biggest but not the only reason of farmers’ sufferings this year. As much as 3.5 lakh hectare area across 12 Indian states affected by locust swarm. Locust entered in India from Sindh province of Pakistan from April 11.
Farmers skipping vegetable farming
Indian farmers have to face flood and drought situations every year. This year is no different as half of the country is facing flood, which has worst affected the agricultural sector. In these circumstances, farmers in the country have no clue what to do and what not to do next. That’s why they are looking for grow crops other than their traditional domain i.e. vegetables.
In response of one or more coronavirus lockdown impacts, including rotting, unsold or un-harvested crop, a number of farmers across the country are not cultivating vegetables for this season. A few officials have agreed in media interviews that seed selling numbers to farmers have dropped by around 30 percent after coronavirus lockdown impacts on agriculture across the country.
Facing lots of issues like transportation and marketing of vegetables, many farmers have turned back to cereal cultivation. Instead, a number of vegetable farmers in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar are looking towards maize cultivation. According to experts, the most adverse impacts will reflect in cultivation of ladyfinger, pumpkin, gourd and cauliflower. Major trend reflects in onion cultivation in some states this season.
State intervention needed
Agriculture still plays an important role in Indian economy, contributing 16 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) after service and industrial sectors. But the farmers, who contribute their part honestly in the economy, get minimum returns. Sometimes, they take extreme step of suicide because of not being able to pay off debts after suffering huge losses.
In such circumstances along with Covid 19 lockdown impacts, it’s not viable to leave them on their own. The backbone of Indian food sufficiency is these farmers and during these trying times, they need a real support with strong measures. It’s not the time to liberalize the agriculture sector as the government currently intends to, but state must take things in own hands, say experts.
State must intervene to provide farmers better pricing for their produce, offer investments for better water harvesting and build up an agro-ecological transition. According to experts, these all measures can help agriculture sector to stand strongly in times of extremes weathers, natural calamities or pandemic outbreaks. In rural areas, this economic crisis has become more critical after Covid 19 pandemic.
There is a big need of social and structural reforms in agriculture, especially during this crisis period. Experts are not seeing current packages and reforms, announced by the government, much effective in the present conditions. They are asking for some customize, impactful and drastic actions for farmers in this highly critical situation.
