No Covid impact on farming: Niti

New Delhi, June 6: Niti Aayog member (agriculture) Ramesh Chand on Sunday said the second Covid wave will not impact the Indian agriculture sector in anyway as rural areas saw spread of infections in May when agriculture activities remained at bare minimum.

In an interview, Chand said that India’s policies on subsidy, price and technology have remained too much in favour of rice, wheat and sugarcane, and there is need to make the procurement and minimum support price policy favourable to pulses. “Covid-19 cases started spreading in the rural areas in the month of May, with the beginning of the month of May, and agriculture activity in the month of May is bare minimal, particularly land-based activities,” he added.

“...it (May) is a peak summer month and no crop is sown, no crop is harvested except little bit vegetables and some offseason crops,” Chand further explained.

Agriculture activity, Chand said, peaks in the

Agriculture activity, Chand said, peaks in the month of March or till middle of April, after that it comes down significantly and again peaks with the arrival of monsoon.

month of March or till middle of April, after that it comes down significantly and again peaks with the arrival of monsoon.

“So even if less availability of labour is there in the month of May till midJune, I don’t think that will impact agriculture in anyway,” Chand said.

He pointed out that labour force is moving to rural areas as there has been a lot of increase in Covid cases in urban areas and these labourers are willing to work in the agriculture sector. “From the output side, you look at agriculture market data. Market for agriculture (is) just working normally everywhere,” he argued.

He noted that income from the agriculture sector, which is a major source of earning for rural people, is intact.