Preventive measures to safeguard agro-based products by FICCI

Agriculture and allied activities sector is likely to be adversely hit by the Coronavirus scare. In fact, the poultry sector is already being affected severely. The poultry sector which is the fastest growing sub- sector of India agriculture eco-system and where the country has created a foothold at the global level (India is the third largest producer of eggs and fifth largest producer of broilers) is already facing losses to the tune of 150-200 crore each day. The social media has been spreading misinformation by correlating Coronavirus infection to consumption of meat and poultry products. This has caused enormous destruction in demand for poultry products and the prices realized by farmers have crashed to Rs 10-15 per kg – whilst the production cost of about Rs 70 – 80 per kg.

Furthermore, the prices of several commodities including soybean, maize and chana have fallen. Once the rabi crop will start arriving in the market from second week of April, mandis are going to see large gatherings of farmers. There is a need to ensure preventive measures to avoid the spread of virus in rural areas.

Suggestions for poultry products

• Government should mount an enthusiastic media campaign to counter the rumours being spread on social media regarding consumption of poultry products.
• Government may also consider giving direct assistance to poultry farmers through direct benefit transfer so that they are compensated to some extent for the losses incurred by them.
• Given the extensive interactions and concentration of people in Agri-mandis, steps must be taken to regulate the entry and exit of people in agriculture mandis.
• Given the good rabi season, the supply of Agri products in the markets is expected to be sizable and government must ensure that the Agri-products are procured and stored well in time. The ‘bhawantar scheme’ can be used for this purpose more effectively.
• Payments due to various agencies dealing with Central and State Governments should be released on a priority basis. This will help ensure liquidity in the trading system in rural areas.

Suggestions for Agro-chemicals

• In order to ensure short and medium-term food sufficiency and to protect farmers’ income. the government must put pesticides and other agriculture inputs under the exempted list so that the manufacturing, imports, logistics and retailing of these inputs should not be unintentionally gets disrupted. The farmer is greatly dependent on all such inputs for growing crops and for their sustainability.
• The support needed from the government is to kick start local production of Intermediates and technical grade products which will help country to be self -reliant but also can help increasing exports to global markets. In this regards measures to incentivize and / or financially support backward integration by Indian companies for production of Technical grades and intermediates should be taken up.

For more details, visit:
www.ficci.in