Covid-19: Farmers neck-deep in trouble owing to lockdown

Madhya Pradesh, Apr 09: Farmers have been one of the most hard hit by the ongoing 21-days nationwide lockdown.

The wheat crop standing in the fields has ripened but farmers are having trouble getting labourers for harvesting.

Farmers of Madhya Pradesh are also struggling with this problem.

Farmers in Chhatarpur say they are incurring losses as they are unable to harvest their crops due to lack of labourers amid COVID19 lockdown.

According to a tweet by ANI, Kalibandhu, a farmer, says that no labourers are being found to harvest the crop.

Kalibandhu, a farmer says, "There are no labourers to harvest our crops. The machines for harvesting crops are very costly and we can not afford them. We are very worried as we will have nothing to sell and earn if this continued". #CovidLockdown https://t.co/hxlMAxN1bj pic.twitter.com/bG7yO2neGA

— ANI (@ANI) April 9, 2020

Machines for harvesting crops are also very expensive that they cannot buy them. They are very worried because they will have nothing to sell and earn if the lockdown continues.

Family members of farmers in Rohtak, Haryana are helping them to harvest crops, due to shortage of labourers.

Hemchandra, a farmer says, "Crop is ready, so we are taking help of our family members to harvest it. Still, we need labourers as the work is very slow".

Underlining this critical situation in the wake of lockdown, Lucknow-based farm expert Sudhir Panwar said, "Movements of farmers and agriculture labourers should be allowed from home to farms so that they can continue with their ongoing harvest operations.

Delayed procurement is not much of a problem, but harvest can not be delayed. If harvest is forced to be delayed, it will result into loss of 5-10 per cent of produce due to shattering in wheat and mustard".

Meanwhile, the number of virus-infected patients in Madhya Pradesh jumped to 385 as 72 new coronavirus positive cases were reported on Wednesday, health officials said.

The highest number of 213 cases are from Indore with 21 deaths where the state death toll reached 29.