India’s Agriculture Sector Will Not Be Impacted By COVID-19 Second Wave: Niti Aayog
- ByStartupStory | June 7, 2021
Niti Aayog Member (Agriculture) Ramesh Chand recently said the second COVID-19 wave will not impact the Indian agriculture sector in any way as rural areas saw the spread of infections in May when Indian agriculture sector activities remained at a bare minimum. The labour force is moving to rural areas as there has been a lot of increase in COVID-19 cases in urban areas, and these labourers are willing to work in the agriculture sector for livelihood.
Chand said in an interview with PTI, India’s policies on subsidy, price, and technology have remained too much in favour of rice, wheat, and sugarcane, and there is a need to make the procurement and minimum support price policy favourable to pulses. Further, Indian agriculture activity, peaks in March or till the 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 May till mid-June, I don’t think that will impact agriculture in any way.”
He also noted that income from the Indian agriculture sector, which is a major source of earning for rural people, is intact. “So that large segment of rural income, it is remaining intact and rural demand on that count will not be affected,” he opined in regard to Indian agriculture sector not being affected by the second wave of the pandemic.
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