Farmers in India were expecting a bumper wheat crop this season. Ironically, they are now finding ways to minimise losses despite the Centre relaxing lockdown norms for agriculture and allied activities starting Monday.

Breather for Cities, Plunderer for Farms

Just as farmers were dealing with the perils of coronavirus lockdown at a time when harvesting of rabi crop is supposed to be at its peak, untimely rains late on Saturday across most parts of North India exponentially increased their fears of a crop failure.

Hailstorms hit fields in Punjab, Haryana and parts of Uttar Pradesh exactly when wheat and rabi crops were just starting to be harvested.

“Any amount of rainfall on ready, standing crop during the harvest season ...

Economic Times

The government is closely monitoring the demand and supply of agricultural products and regularly interacting with mandis and top officials of states. This has helped ensure smooth supplies during the lockdown, officials said.

“We have ensured that there is no shortage of TOP (tomato, onion and potato) in any state. There is no scarcity of these three essential horticultural items. Only thing is stitching supply and demand together. We are coordinating with supply and consuming states for uninterrupted delivery,” said an agriculture ministry official.

Rediff

Brajwasi Meena, a young farmer from Sheupur district in Madhya Pradesh, decided not to sell his 50 quintals of wheat as the trader was offering him a price which was almost Rs 250-350 quintal less than the minimum support price of Rs 1925 a quintal under a new system called, ‘sauda patrak or parchi’.

“If I had sold the crop at the rate offered by the trader, I would have incurred a loss of almost Rs 11,000 in a trolley full of wheat, which weighs 50 quintals,” Meena said

Times Of India

The efforts taken by the agriculture marketing and horticulture department to help banana farmers sell their produce after the Covid-19 outbreak have started reaping dividends. Banana farmers from Trichy have sold out about 4,500 tonnes of banana to the tune of Rs 5.78 crore during the lockdown period so far. Following appeals from the farmers, the state government instructed the district administrations to initiate steps to sell banana, which are ready to harvest. It may be recalled that TOI had carried stories highlighting the plights of banana farmers.

Times Of India

Unseasonal rains have caused severe damage to the standing crops across Telangana. Several tonnes of harvested paddy and maize, brought to government established paddy procurement centres, were also destroyed by the rains on Saturday and Sunday. A shortage of tarpaulin covers and gunny bags has only aggravated the problem. Along with the paddy crop, maize and mango orchards were also affected by the rains. Crops in Karimnagar, Asifabad, Kumaram Bheem, Nizamabad, Kamareddy, Rajanna-Sircilla, Siddipet, Peddapalli and Jagtial districts have suffered damages.

Times Of India

The relaxation of conditions for transportation of agricultural produces has brought much relief to coconut farmers in the district. Since the restrictions were relaxed, nearly 30,000 to 50,000 coconuts were transported from Sholavandan to other states Bharathiya Kisan Sangh secretary T Perumal said Sholavandan in Vadipatti block is a major area where coconut is cultivated in Madurai. While only 30% of the coconuts would be sent for domestic use within the state, the remaining 70% would be sent to states such as Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. Following the lockdown, the coconut farmers have been facing difficulties to market their produce.

Economic Times

The lockdown is driving some long-awaited positive changes in agriculture – it is bringing farmers in direct contact with big buyers in cities and is forcing a change in cropping practices that will help rejuvenate the soil and conserve water.

The uncertainty in mandis has strengthened direct sales. The central and many state governments are helping farmers bring their produce to cities, cutting the middlemen who often make maximum profit in the entire chain.

Sme Street

Wheat crop harvesting reached around 67 per cent of the total area under cultivation so far and summer crop sowing is also in progress despite a nationwide lockdown as timely intervention by the central and state governments has ensured that there is minimal or no disruption to the farm activities, said the Union Agriculture Ministry.

According to the Union Ministry of Agriculutre and Farmers welfare, the total area under wheat crop this rabi season is 310 lakh hectares of which 63-67 per cent has already been harvested in the country.

Indian Express

Farmers are currently harvesting, if they haven’t already, a bumper rabi crop. The India Meteorological Department has forecast a 100 per cent normal southwest monsoon (subject to a model error of ± 5 per cent), with the possibility of weak La Niña conditions (the opposite of El Niño that is generally not favourable for rainfall in the subcontinent) developing in the second half of the four-month season from June to September. That bodes well for the coming kharif planting season too. Agriculture is important from two standpoints. The first is inflation control, which is predicated on adequate supply of food, feed and fibre. Secondly, farmers and rural labourers have high marginal propensity to consume. The Indian economy ...