Coronavirus Hit Agriculture

Coronavirus: Lockdown or Shutdown of India impacts on Agriculture Sector

Agriculture

Agriculture is the backbone of the Indian economy, how we can say that it is not affected by other sectors. Agriculture Commodity prices crashed due to bulk demand from hotels and restaurants. While the demand for vegetables, fruits, and Milk is increased due to lockdown. Where
some vegetables demand decreased which does not have a long shelf life. The decline of the demand in the trade of cereals, oilseed, and some vegetables other than potato and onions will affect the agriculture sector the sugar prices declined by 4% in the last 15 days whereas grapes have fallen from about Rs 100 per kg to Rs 70-75 per kg in export. In exports such as rice and imports like edible oils suffering from major implications for prices and availability. It also may be seen in the light of bottlenecks at ports in other countries and at home. This ultimate analysis, both farmers and consumers would be affected.

Lockdown

The coronavirus(covid-19) virus is now fully entrenched in the Indian economic system if not the society at large. As a preventive measure, the government has ordered a shut down across the country for the next 21 days which will soon affect every individual both directly and indirectly. Due to coronavirus at a very broad level, a single day of a complete shutdown or lockdown curfew which entails zero production of goods and services involves around Rs 50000 crore of real GDP and hence a 10 days shut down would be Rs 5 lakh crore or 3.4 percent of GDP i.e., from around Rs 146 lakh crore in FY20 to Rs 141 lakh crore. The agriculture sector is in a very delicate state today as this is the beginning of the Rabi harvest season. Also, due to unseasonal rains destroying a certain part of the wheat, mustard and Gram crops which is a handicap, to begin with.

India is at the 'critical stage' in coronavirus outbreak.

If we see the manufacturing sector faces a double challenge. These are going to be a serious distortion of the supply chain. While dealing with foreign parties and also the domestic industry. The shutdown has not been ordered for all manufacturing industry and goods for consumers need to be produced, but the absence of raw materials can create supply shortages of final goods.

Vegetable Demand

These include aviation, restaurants, retail malls, entertainment in particular where these type of activity has come down to nil. The major blow has been the Indian railways which have shut down along with other public transport. This essentially means that the entire physical communication sector has stopped working. The revenue loss will mean a sharp decline in the nation's GDP.

If we see the current situation there is no shortage of grains and pulses in the country. The supply chain is fully geared up with an abundance of stocks of over 58 Millon tonnes of rice and wheat according to Food Corporation of India (FCI) and more than 3.2 million tonnes of pulses with NAFED, as in March 2020.

The harvesting time of rabi crops is at peek if this coronavirus(covid-19) is not controlled will affect lower and middle-class farmers and workers who work for their daily needs. The government must protect their wages and ensure that there is no labor shortage for the coming harvesting of the rabi season and the next sowing seasons.

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