Farmers Arrive In Trickle At Punjab, UP Mandis As COVID-19 Slows Harvest

Two major food grain producing states have started buying wheat and pulses from farmers amid the lockdown over the COVID-19 pandemic, but the volume and pace of procurement is slow.

In Punjab, farmers are yet to harvest 70 per cent of wheat crop. The grain markets or mandis in the state have been mostly empty for the last two days, though the government led by Captain Amarinder Singh has started a big operation to buy wheat from farmers.

Officials said very less quantity of wheat made it to the mandis at Doaba, Malwa and Majha in Punjab - only 4,855 tonnes of the food grain reached the mandis across the state on Day 1 of the buying season this year, as against 18,309 tonnes of wheat on the first day of last year's procurement season.

Farmers arriving at the mandis have to go through temperature check and sanitisation to see signs of COVID-19 infection. Fever is one of the symptoms of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

In Uttar Pradesh, another major food grain producing state, the government bought 4,048 tonnes of food grain from 615 farmers on Day 1 of the buying season, officials said. There are 5,000 food grain procurement centres spread across Uttar Pradesh.

On Day 1, when NDTV visited the mandi at Barabanki, 40 km from Lucknow, the food grain procurement centre was just about opening up.

The target this year is to acquire 55 lakh tonnes of food grain from farmers. Officials said the volume of food grain that arrived at the mandis on Day 1 was low, but expect it to pick up in the coming days.

The lockdown is active during the harvest season, with farmers worried their reaping and sowing cycles will be severely disrupted and place further pressure on the country's food supply chain -- already hit by transport delays.

The government has put out guidelines for reopening some rural industries, construction and economic activity after April 20 in areas least affected by COVID-19, to generate jobs for migrant workers.