of the adverse impact of the lockdown ensuing from the outbreak of the COVID‐19 than that was observed with other farmers of the country.
The nationwide lockdown has increased the social and economic burden of the farmers in the Bundelkhand region, shattering their hopes and sinking them into the debt trap (APEDA 2019). Subsequently, the farmers of Bundelkhand have employed all their resources to meet the challenges of unpredictable weather. However, these attempts have only been documented through official paperwork (Chaba and Damodara 2020). Due to the absence of any worthy support system, the farmers have put everything at stake to take loans and plan for the next crop season. All efforts to break the longstanding belief that Indian farmers are risk‐averse have been made (Figure 4.5). They have experimented and invested for their betterment.
As per the government's data from Indian solicits, an average of 263 million people are directly engaged in the farming and agriculture sector. Of these, over 55% do not own the croplands (Chakraborty et al. 2017; Chander and Mohan 2020). A prime concern ensuing the announcement of the lockdown by the Prime Minister of India on 24 March 2020, due to the outbreak of COVID‐19, lakhs of people have left the cities on account of unemployment and returned to their villages to avoid the pressures of maintaining a family in cities with a high cost of living. Moreover, they have returned unemployed.
4.6.2 Is Price Crash in the Post‐Lockdown Phase a Reality?
Although it was predicted that the lockdown would be lifted after 21 days from 24 March 2020, now extended to extra 19 days 03 May 2020, farm experts are still burdened by the anticipation of a cash crash in the mandis, which might seriously impact their state of mental wellbeing. Everywhere, farmers are apprehensive and anticipating retraction of the lockdown. However, it is possible that, even if the lockdown ends, the mandis may not perform effectively in the post‐lockdown period and the farmers may encounter a cash crash. This situation may potentially lead to the dumping of fruits, vegetables, and other farm produce, damaging the economic status of the farmers.
In the seven districts like Jhansi, Lalitpur, Banda, Jalaun, Hamirpur, Chitrakoot, and Mahoba of the Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh, a change in the cropping pattern is being witnessed, which is not by choice but the only option available, which includes irrigation of the winter crop instead of the kharif crop. The failure to harvest in the past has led to a spate of suicides, which is continuing till date with the decadal numbers witnessing a spike. The failure of the existing government schemes in the Bundelkhand region is evident, in which, weather uncertainties are chronic. However, the situation is similar in the other regions of the country as well. Finally, quick policy measures by the government considering the specific need of time in relation to the specific regions throughout the country including direct procurement, landless laborers, direct cash transfers to the farmers and interest subvention through cash transfers and KCC modes are the ways to overcome this crisis and minimize the impact of this lockdown.
Figure 4.5 Wheat/rice crops are ready for harvesting at many places and farmers in India are worried that they would incur huge losses due to the lockdown ensuing from the outbreak of COVID‐19.
4.6.3 Steps Taken by the Government to Announce Packages, Do They Support?
The short‐term lockdown resulting from outbreak of the COVID‐19 pandemic has interrupted the state supply of food and stock and is mainly influencing the economic strategy of the country. The advisory board of the government for political and fiscal concerns has informed in a report from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) that food grains constitute 77 million tons of cereals against a buffer supply requirement of 21 million tons on 1 April 2020. Moreover, this lockdown is a humanity‐related issue, in which, people are migrating back to the rural areas and reinforces the importance of having strong policies in place to tackle the decline in market availability for and sale of produce. The GoI has already announced that for the coming three months, 5 kg of free grains would be distributed to people registered under the National Food Security (NFS) Act. It is estimated that the FCI stockings may free up with help from the Government to help the migrants registered under the schemes from different states (Chakrabarti et al. 2019; Verma and Gustafsson 2020).
To overcome the current situation, the Indian Finance Minister has proclaimed a financial assistance of 1.7 trillion or INR 1.7 lakh crore rupees as subsidy to the people below the poverty line, which include 800 million people nationwide. Moreover, the GoI has announced a scheme called PM‐KISAN for Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (Varshney et al. 2020a). This scheme was offered amounts of INR 2000 thrice to the Indian farmer after every fourth month by April 2020. Despite provision of this financial assistance by the government, experts have noted that 87 million farmers in India alone have refrained from expressing their optimism. However, it stops farmer during long lockdown period to express their main concern to the government (Jat et al. 2019; Yadav et al. 2019). Mandis in the states are currently closed on account of this lockdown, preventing an influx in the income of the farmers and harvesters. Farmers require money, particularly now, because it is the season of harvest. However, the lockdown ensuing from the COVID‐19 outbreak has impacted the mental stability and wellbeing of the farmers and is a precursor to a probable cash crash. Moreover, the government has not outlined a plan‐B to deal with this situation, though “having life, hoping future” is the message to uphold currently. Some experts have claimed that the announced relief packages are pitiable and not fulfilling the requirement of the farmers, which is a serious concern.
4.7 ICAR Initiatives
In the state of Uttar Pradesh, after a complete lockdown Phase 1: 25 March 2020–14 April 2020 (21 days) of 17 days, the total cases of COVID‐19 have risen above 500 with 35 deaths, although approximately 119 have recovered. Fortunately, this pandemic has not yet reached the stage of community spread (after stage 2: 15 April 2020–3 May 2020 [19 days]). Owing to complete lockdown, the daily wage earners, agricultural marketers, agricultural farmers, consumers, and related stakeholders are likely to suffer enormously. Therefore, the Government of Uttar Pradesh has issued two office orders permitting suppliers to continue the movement of honey, vegetables, mushrooms, fruits, milk, and related horticultural produce in the state. Secondly, permission to avail plant protection chemicals, seed fertilizers, agricultural commodities, and farm machineries has been granted. The effects of these efforts are apparent in the urban areas, as witnessed by the lack of panic in the purchase of fruits and vegetables in the cities. The ICAR has also issued advisories on specific farm practices applicable to this state, which have been circulated among farmers in every district by the KVKs.
4.8 Impact on State Agriculture
As the laborers from the nearby cities and Delhi have migrated to their respective villages, the availability of laborers for carrying out farm operations has increased. As a result, the daily wages at the village level have dropped by 15–20%. If available, their rates have increased by 30–40%. Due to reduced number of wholesalers in the mandis, the sale of vegetables has decreased, causing distress to the vegetable growers (Gaydon et al. 2017; Shyamsundar et al. 2019; Prasad 2020). However, the income of vegetable growers, and, in turn, the retailers has increased because of the higher prices quoted by them. The price of majority of the seasonal vegetables like cucurbits, brinjal, cabbage, potato, cauliflower, etc. has increased by 40–45%. Similarly, the fruit prices such as apple, grapes, banana, coconut, oranges, and many more have increased by 30–40%. Similarly, dairy farmers are experiencing the crisis of increased rates of feeds and concentrates (Gupta et al. 2020a,b). They need to sell milk at lower prices than the prevailing rates and even less quantities.
4.9 Conclusion
After