A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD FOR INDIAN FARMERS POST-COVID
The devastating impact of COVID-19 has left no sector unaffected.
And sadly, sabse buri tarah jo sector affect hua hai, woh hai India’s pride, our kisan bhai!! 🙁
Farmers who work in kheti are no less than our Annadata! YES! KHETI is the BACKBONE of Indian economy!!!
Source: Biased Club
Yeh pandemic ki shuruat bhi kitni kharab timing pe hui, hai na? March-April month mein jab harvesting period hota hai, tab pura desh was in lockdown! Toh yeh sudden Covid-19 induced lockdowns ki wajah se the agricultural supply chain was in turmoil. This made lakhs of crops to rot and undelivered.
Yes, it is true that people from all the sectors are deeply affected from this coronavirus pandemic. Our Indian economy is very dependent on farmers and their khets!
Do you know???
Agriculture contributes about 17% to the total GDP to the Indian economy? And it provides employment to over 60% of the population. But due to pandemic and sudden lockdown, they have suffered the most. Pata hai kyun?
Kyunki majority of the farming community includes farm labourers, tenant farmers and women farmers. And in logo ke paas jyada savings nahi hai. Many families are struggling to feed their children.
Don’t you think they deserve the highest priority?
A long list of problems of farmers
Our farmers are always facing problems:
Kabhi drought… Toh kabhi floods!
Kabhi they are unable to secure loans
Toh kabhi they are unable to repay loans…
Kabhi unproductive crops or kabhi heftly interests on loans…
OMG! Their situation is always bad.
Yeh humare Annadaatas hai or inhe itna dukh jhelna padhta hai!?
But this time, their situation is grave and more worrying than ever. The lockdown has put their livelihood at stake.
Source: DailyO
Not having sufficient labour for the work
You can’t do everything by yourself, right? So we can’t expect this thing from farmers too. They also need a supportive hand as well. This current situation of pandemic has affected the commercial crops drastically. We know that it requires many labourers to harvest the commercial crop.
But because of strict regulations regarding social distancing and frequent lockdowns, farmers are unable to resume their work. More in the fear of Covid-19 attack.
Source: Indian Express
Farmers cannot access markets to sell their crops. Government’s lock and unlock process has made their life difficult. Farmers are the one that are suffering the most in this situation. Their condition wasn’t good even before and this pandemic has made it worse.
Source: Rural Marketing
Every now and then we listen to the news of a farmer suiciding along with his family.
This is a very tough time for farmers. They are not getting a good price for their entire year’s of hard work. Farmers are left with no other option but to sell their crops at a lower price in the markets.
Won’t you feel bad if you cannot enjoy the fruit of your own harvested tree?
A simple economics worked here: When supply increases, demand increases too! So, as few labourers were available to work, the labour wages rose. This proved to be a tremendous loss to farmers.
Will the end of the lockdown end their problem?
And you know how difficult it becomes for farmers to repay their crop and gold loans to their borrowers!
Let me explain to you a bit about crop loans: Government agencies give crop loans to the farmers every year. Farmers repay it in between the months of April and May. And, the cycle continues.. But this year, because of the recent price collapse, the farmers are bearing the brunt of huge losses.
Most of them are already in debt, and they have no means to repay their loans. These problems make them borrow money from informal sectors with high interest rates. 🙁 This is what a farmer is going through during this pandemic. Just imagine the burden they are carrying!
Government relief package failed to impress the farmers
The government’s 2018 special package, the PM-KISAN scheme, stated that they’ll beproviding the farmers with Kisan Credit Cards. Here, farmers can avail concessional loans.
But the underlying question is – Will that be enough?
With the entire supply-chain disrupted, there are some very serious factors affecting India’s agriculture sector.
Source: Deccan Herald
Even Atma Nirbhar Abhiyan scheme failed to provide valuable solutions.
Now in this situation of a double-edged sword for Indian farmers…
Till how long will our kisan suffer?
When will they get their haq ka insaaf?
And when will the government decide to give them some sort of direct income support to overcome this crisis????
Measures that can help farmers in this crisis:
We can not even imagine the struggle that these farmers are dealing with!!!!!
How will you feel if your children sleep hungry AND you cannot feed them because you don’t have money? Sadly, this is the reality of our Indian farmers.
But hum yeh situation badal sakte hai… Only if we can give them the right platform and encourage them… Their condition may improve if they:
Source: Indian Express
- Sell their crops in the local areas. This will help in reducing transportation cost
- Shift from cash crops to food-based crops. (Don’t you think if farmers produce more food-based crops then it can reduce the food insecurity?)
- Direct transfer to farmers from PM Kisan. This will surely help most of the farming families
Upgrading our farmer’s plight
They deserve to be in our priority list, but unfortunately they are not. Uff, negative implications of COVID-19 pandemic on the farm economy is just not ending… 🙁 🙁
Just mere announcements from the government will not divert the crisis during this pandemic. And now the condition in which farmers are, can be fatal for all of us.
Accha khana toh hum sab khana chahte hai, par aisa kaam karna koi nahi chahta!
Have you ever heard any parents saying:
Mera bacha bada hoke farmer banega/banegi?
Many farming families have been into agriculture since years. Agar ye saal aise hain chale tho we surely have to experience a food crisis!!!
Source: IAS Toppers
We must unite and come forward to help our farmers. We are dependent on them – without them, we cannot live!!!!
Let’s not become a third wheel to our Indian farmer’s already troubled story. Contribute to them let’s prevent further havoc which might rise because of lack of food.
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Source-https://www.livemint.com/industry/agriculture/money-for-nothing-pumpkins-for-free-11588863832315.html
Source-https://www.elearnmarkets.com/blog/all-that-you-need-to-know-about-atma-nirbhar-bharat-abhiyan/
Keywords:
Coronavirus
Farmers
Pandemic
COVID-19
Crisis
Government Relief Fund
OUTLINE:
A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD FOR INDIAN FARMERS POST-COVID (OUTLINE)
Intention – farmers dukhi hai,
Govt se bhi and uski kheti se bhi
Farmers ki dasha in covid19
- How is the growth rate of agriculture being affected? – explain decline rate
- Condition of the farmers-
- pre-COVID, – they use to suicide before due to loans
- during lockdown and – suffered big loss
- post-COVID – misery continues
- WILL GOV PROVIDED RELIEF FUND BE ENOUGH TO ADDRESS THE TEARS OF OUR FARMERS?
- – no not enough – talk abt misery – suffering –
- IS A WAIVER ON LOAN ENOUGH? (NO) Farm loan waivers- double-edged swords for farmers.
Values provided:
- What farmers need at this point of time? Even local benefits are not enough – (don’tdont write sucide and all)
- Do or die situation of the farmers.
Wrap up-
\We shouldn’t ignore them.