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 is hugely damaging. Saturday's thunderstorm will be causing major losses to farmers," said Pushpender Singh, a farm leader in Uttar Pradesh.
Meanwhile, intermittent rains during the weekend in Amritsar have made farmers worried about their ready crops.
Several farmers informed that rain would increase the moisture content in grain and that they would face difficulty at markets as the procurement agencies would not buy grains with moisture more than the permissible limit.
They further explained that Rabi crops require less water, low temperature, less humidity and moderate sunshine. Untimely rains during the harvest season only spell havoc for the crop produce.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast had said that a western disturbance would affect the western Himalayan region, which could bring scattered rain and thunder showers over the northern plain region on April 17 and 18.
Sukhdev Singh, general secretary of Bharatiya Kisan Union said, "Rains will damage standing wheat crop at several places. The government should compensate farmers for their crop loss.”
He claimed that there were not enough tarpaulins to cover produce which was brought to mandis by wheat growers in rain-hit areas.
Chief Agriculture Officer of Punjab, Dr Harinderjit Singh said, “The flattening of crop has been reported. The rainfall received in the district ranged from 4mm to 6mm. It is scanty but would delay the harvesting.”
Punjab's Special Chief Secretary KBS Sidhu also tweeted, saying, “Compensation, rather the relief, shall be distributed expeditiously out of this State Disaster Relief Fund (SDEF)”.
Normally, when untimely rains hit, farmers begin panic harvesting but that is not possible this year because the government has restricted assembly of people. Moreover, several farmers complained that machines used to harvest referred to as combiners, in local parlance, are yet to arrive, further delaying harvesting.
The problem was further intensified when migrant labourers, who usually double up as agricultural workers during the harvest season, left towns for their native places after the sudden imposition of lockdown.
No Harvesters, no Labourers
Immediately after the sudden announcement of lockdown, migrant labourers had set off for their homes. Some reached while others are still stuck at various camps setup for their stay. As a result, there is shortage of agricultural labour in villages, thus delaying the harvest at a time when the temperature has already started to soar.
According to the International Labour Organisation’s estimates, which is based on Census 2011 figures, around 24 lakh migrants work in fields across India.
Ministry Home Affairs on Sunday said that migrant labourer will be allowed to travel for work within the state with certain conditions but will not be able to cross borders. “We have permission to harvest during the lockdown, but there’s no labour available. My entire family has been manually harvesting the crop since last week," said Raju Singh, a wheat farmer in Madhya Pradesh.
Added to this is the delay in arrival of combine harvester machines that are responsible for more than 85 per cent of the harvesting activities in the country. On an average, farmers informed, harvesting takes three days using machines. The same activity is performed in seven days when agricultural labourers use bare hands. Now, in the absence of both, farmers estimate a delay of close to two weeks.
Lack of machinery and labour has also propped up the problem of storage. As a result, farmers have decided to delay harvesting as much as possible in the absence of any directions from the government on how to manage the produce after it is cultivated.
Several farmer organisations have requested respective state governments to ensure availability of combine harvesters that are stuck in various states. They have also sought adequate space in warehouses to store their produce till they get labourers to take it to the market.
Harvester operators from north India usually go to central and western parts of the country in winter to help farmers cultivate wheat there. During this time, they return to states like Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to help harvest the rabi crop. Farmers in Haryana said many mechanical harvesters are stuck in states such as Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan because of lockdown curbs.
Low Demand Resulting in Excess Produce, Plummeting Prices
Those farmers who are somehow able to harvest their crops and transport them to markets are being greeted with lack of demand in mandis. With most industrial and restaurant activity coming to a standstill, demand has nosedived, resulting in unprecedented dip in prices, especially of perishable goods.
To understand the impact of the pandemic on markets, consider this: per quintal price of gram in Maharashtra's Latur has dipped to Rs 3,650 whereas the minimum support price (MSP) for the crop is Rs 4,875. Similarly in Rajasthan's Alwar, the market price of mustard currently stands at Rs 3,600 per quintal almost Rs 1,000 less than its MSP.
In Karnataka, tomato prices crashed by over 50 per cent, from Rs 1,290 a quintal last year to Rs 560 now.
Ladies finger rates are also down by nearly 40 per cent. In Punjab, green chillies, cucumber, capsicum and cabbage are lying dumped at mandis for lack of buyers.
Farmers across Maharashtra, Punjab and Haryana informed that there are hardly any buyers in mandis. "I have hired carriers by spending double the amount to transport my crops to the mandis but to no use. Three days since I found a sizeable buyer," said Mahesh Kumar Singh, a farmer in Haryana.
Devappa Anna Shetti also known as Raju Shetti, former Member of Parliament from Maharashtra and a farmer leader explained the difficulties peasants in the state are facing.
"Not just the harvest of rabi crops, farmers have not been able to transport their vegetables to the markets for sale. Those who have, are returning with almost their entire stock. Government buying has just started. These vegetables are transported to various states. Without that, mandis in the country will have serious shortage of supply. Farmers will get no money. The lockdown will impact the famers not just for this season but will financially dent their capacity to buy for the next year as well," he said.
Despite these serious concerns, India may not have to go hungry in the near future.
As per Second Advance Estimates for 2019-20 released last week, total food grains production in the country is estimated at record 291.95 million tones, which is higher by 6.74 million tonnes than the production of food grains of 285.21 million tonnes achieved during 2018-19.
The production during 2019-20 is higher by 26.20 million tonnes than the previous five years’ (2013-14 to 2017-18) average production of food grains.
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