Pandemic rages, but farmers defy odds with winter harvest
NEW DELHI: As a devastating Covid-19 second wave tears through the country, farmers have defied the odds -- even in states with high daily cases -- to nearly complete harvesting of most winter-sown crops, as they prepare for the oncoming kharif, or summer sowing, season.
Timely agricultural operations despite surging Covid-19 infections have ensured stable food supplies and farm incomes, although there have been reports of farm markets functioning with lower capacities in states such as Maharashtra, government officials aware of the developments said.
According to the second official advance estimates, issued in February 2021, India’s foodgrains production in 2020-21 is estimated to be a record 303.34 million tonne — up from the 297.5 million tonne produced in 2019-20.
Farmers have already harvested a total of 82% of wheat, the key winter staple, said an agriculture ministry official who asked not to be named. Wheat had been sown in 31.5 million.
Harvesting has reached 99% in Rajasthan, 96% in Madhya Pradesh, 80% in Uttar Pradesh, 65% in Haryana and 60% in Punjab, according to agriculture ministry data.
Farmers have also wrapped up sugarcane harvesting in Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Telangana. Chhattisgarh and Karnataka are among states worst hit by the Covid-19 surge.
In Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Maharashtra – which saw one of the deadliest spikes in coronavirus cases this month – farmers have completed harvesting of lentils, such as gram, urad, mung and peas. Harvesting is at its peak in Haryana, Punjab, and UP. “It is likely to be completed by the end of April,” an official said.
Experts say the rural India may not have escaped the current Covid-19 surge, which set off once again in urban centres such as Mumbai, and has crippled several cities, including Delhi and Bengaluru, which are experiencing their worst outbreaks.
According to a health ministry briefing this week, there were 146 districts across the country where the positivity rate, (positive cases against tests), was more than 15 per cent. Some of the worst-hit