The Covid 19 pandemic has a devastating impact in the Indian agricultural sector- through its direct implications as well through measures undertaken to contain it. The measures taken to restrict the flow of the disease have caused some serious repercussions breaking the agricultural supply chains to the markets as well as the consumers. The virus under its direct impact has also caused a shift in the consumer demand curve for some of the agricultural commodities. The short term lockdowns and restrictions on mobility of people have resulted in labour shortages in agriculture across the country in India. These have also caused difficulties in logistics, obtaining of intermediate inputs.
What is Agri Business?
Agribusiness or agriculture business refers to all economic activities in the field of agriculture from farming and production to marketing and transportation of agricultural produce.
AGRI BUSINESS POST COVID :
The COVID 19 has adversely affected the Agri Business in India resulting in broken the supply chains, eccentric demand of commodities and lost livelihoods. There is a need for establishing virtual platforms connecting farmers to markets, creating safe working environments and healthy working conditions. Some of the procedures that Agri business should adopt post COVID are the following :
Stabilizing Prices and Procurement of Agricultural Produce :
The COVID 19 pandemic has resulting in several demand and supply shocks for agricultural produce across the country There is a need for developing more e- markets and strength the chain intermediaries to help in minimizing the risk during demand and supply shocks and ensuring stability in pricing. Some additional support in form of subsidies can help in establishing more delivery and e commerce companies , which would help in stabilizing the agricultural supply chain.
Even in established mandi and agricultural markets, there is a need for farmers to know the pricing information. A solution to this problem can be an app or a web portal displaying real time pricing information of all major agricultural commodities in the major agricultural markets across the country. The government can also provide help with professional services in the field of agriculture.
Encouraging development of more FPO s :
The individual farmers can come together pooling in their resources and agricultural produce to stabilize prices of the commodity and minimize losses in the logistics. During the pandemic, Haryana’s horticulture department helped in bringing together 80 farmer producer companies to pool in the farmers agricultural produce and sell to the end consumers. Development of FPOs and building their productive capacities is encouraged even after the pandemic to avoid any many fluctuations in demand and supply of agricultural commodities. Development of Agri tech startups and encouraging them work hand in hand with these FPOs can help further stabilize the raw input and output supply chains.
In the COVID 19 pandemic ,the small farmers in the dairy industry, especially those linked by vendor milk markets have suffered from substantial losses. Therefore, there is a need for development of a digital platform connecting vendors to different processors, raw material suppliers and dairies, helping in saving time and capital for the farmers.
Secure credit and capital :
There is a need for credit easing for farmers in the post covid world. Lack of credit facilities and scarcity of capital are one of the major concerns in agricultural sectors. Government thus, should provide different credit schemes and other schemes for covering losses of disturbance caused in the agricultural markets or harvesting. Government should also ensure an even availability of credit facilities to Small and Medium Enterprises since these organizations help in handling the logistics as well as post production services of agricultural produce. These organizations have suffered from employment restrictions which in turn has affected the farmers adversely.
Protecting poor labour livelihoods :
There was mass movement of agricultural labourers and other workers during the lockdown, this calls for a need to Aadhaar linked database targeting the migrant and agricultural labourers allowing mobility across the states during the pandemic. There is need to protect semi skilled and skilled workers. During the pandemic the scarcity of the agricultural labourers has been a major concern therefore there is a need to facilitate availability of machinery and other agricultural inputs to farmers through FPOs, state entities, etc .
Diversification in agriculture :
Due to the breaking of supply chains supply of agricultural produce had been constrained in many urban parts of the country. Therefore this calls for the need of developing urban farming and encourage urban household to produce some varieties of crops. The COVID 19 pandemic made the nation realize that Indian agricultural economy are bound to face more of climate and other shocks which can hamper the agricultural chains, therefore there is a need for development of decentralized food systems . In the post COVID world, spending on the development of the diversified local food system specifically in economically backward areas should be a priority.
CONCLUSION:
The COVID 19 pandemic has shed light on discrepancies and inadequacies in the agricultural sector . Agricultural market reforms are the need of the hour. These new lessons of the pandemic can help us guide our reforms and making safeguards to prevent economic shocks in the agricultural sector . Digital solutions to connect farmers to markets and the obligation to safeguard of agricultural labourers, especially vulnerable communities becomes a necessity.
KEYWORDS: Agriculture, AgriBusiness , Post COVID 19, Farmers, shining Tomorrow Foundation, Dost Kisan, Pandemic, Agricultural markets , FPO’s, Labourers
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