Saving the rabi crop

The lockdown can severely affect harvesting and sale

The government has taken the right step to free agriculture-related operations from the Covid-19 pandemic-driven national lockdown. At the same time, the state governments have asked farmers and other stakeholders to observe social distancing and other needed precautions against the menace. This is a critical period in the farm calendar when the rabi crops are ready for reaping. The government’s move is aimed at facilitating a smooth harvesting, marketing, and storage of these crops. Many of them, including wheat, are expected to set new production records, regardless of localised damage due to untimely rain and hail-storms. Any lapse in their timely cutting and disposal could cause huge losses to farmers, boding ill for the country’s food security.

However, the farmers’ woes have only abated but not ended even after the revocation of the economic curfew. Acute shortage of labour and trucks is hampering farm operations. The migration of labour from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and elsewhere to the key north-western rabi belt, which has become an almost routine during the harvesting and sowing seasons, has been missing this year. On the contrary, the daily-wage workers in urban areas, including the National Capital Region, who also normally thronged the rural areas around this time to supplement the agricultural workforce, have, in fact, gone back to where they belong. Any improvement in the labour availability soon seems unlikely because of the stoppage of rail and bus services and coronavirus scare.

To make matters worse, farm machines are not available in sufficient numbers to replace manual workers. Combine-harvesters, which work on a custom-hiring basis, normally start operating in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Maharashtra, where the crops ripen early, and move gradually towards the rabi hub of Rajasthan, Haryana, and Punjab, doing the farmers’ work on the way. But this year, many of them are held up in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat because of the paucity of machine operators and their helpers. Nevertheless, even if all these harvesters are pressed into service, they would hardly manage to reap 50-60 per cent of the crop. This apart, a large number of trucks and other commercial vehicles have also not been able to run normally due to the lockout. Many of them got stuck on the highways for days because they carried non-essential items. Now that many of these restrictions have been eased, the situation might improve though normalcy may take time to return. This may pose transportation problems for both traders and official grain-procurement agencies. 

Moreover, agricultural markets are yet to resume normal operations though most restrictions have been lifted. Barring a few big markets like the Azadpur mandi in Delhi, where most workers reside within the premises or nearby, most others are feeling handicapped due to the paucity of labour and logistics. The warehousing facilities for the farm products are also limited. The Food Corporation of India has expressed inability to begin wheat procurement before April 15 or 20, instead of the usual April 1. Some farm unions are demanding an upfront payment of a fixed sum of, say, Rs 10,000, to each farmer to meet his immediate cash needs. This can be adjusted subsequently against the procurement of his produce. These issues need to be sorted out expeditiously to save large-scale wastage of the bumper rabi harvest.