Harvest of hope

THE Supreme Court has asked the Centre to ensure food, water and medicines to thousands of migrant workers intercepted on way to their native places amid the nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus. While checking the movement is imperative to prevent the workers from getting infected, it also has economic implications. As the lockdown goes into its maturity period, with the government assuring for now that it would not be extended even as there has been a spike in the number of Covid cases, the worries are set to get pronounced. The lockdown is also about providing for a captive population because of which the essential services have been allowed to function.

Crucial to this is the harvesting of rabi crops, to replenish the granaries that provide for food security. Agrarian states like Punjab and Haryana now have to find ways to ensure that labour is available. Punjab has decided to start wheat procurement on April 15, while Haryana will do it on April 20. The assurance that the lockdown would not be extended has given rise to hopes that the activity will pick up by then.

The two states have suggested procurement in a staggered way, linked with incentives for the crop arriving late in the mandis. Earlier too, there used to be problems with procurement agencies delaying the lifting of the produce because of the moisture content being present more than the permissible limit. Haryana is already facing problems with combine harvesters getting stuck in other states while it has allowed shops selling seeds, pesticides and fertilisers to remain open for a fixed duration to maintain social distancing. The two states have tried to retain the workforce by clamping curfew and sealing borders, but a shortage could well be an opportunity for their own manpower to exert itself. Telangana has exempted agriculture from the lockdown and will lift the produce from the doorsteps of the farmers. That could well be a way out.