ICAR'S State-wise guidelines and advisory for farmers and farming sector during lockdown period due to Covid-19

A letter from ICAR addressed to farmers on farming issues of immediate interest and attention has been issued and widely circulated to all states. As a follow up to this letter, the National level agro-advisory was prepared by ICAR and has been issued to farmers to cope during the lockdown period due to COVID 19 mainly dovetailing the safety measures with current farming operations such as harvesting, post-harvest, storage and marketing along with timely measures in standing field and horticultural crops. The advisory has been translated into Hindi and other regional languages such as Punabi, Gujarati, Bengali, Assamese, Manipuri, Mizo, Khasi, Marathi, Oriya, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada & Malayalam. The national advisory has received wide coverage in the print and electronic media at the national and regional levels (press clippings enclosed) and social media. All KVKs at district level across the country have circulated the contents of the advisory in local languages through farmers whatsapp groups, mKisan ICT platform, telephone, SMS, radio and TV coverage. The advisory has been broadcast through DD Kisan and other TV channels. One important message is that wheat harvesting is delayed till 15th to 20th April as maturity has been slow due to prevalence of low temperatures in the wheat growing areas thus giving scope for adherence to much required social distancing and also preparedness to cope with the anticipated peak machine harvesting and associated safety measures to be followed. ICAR institutes and KVKs across the states have increasingly adopted digital communication of scientific advisories for the benefit of farmers during the lockdown period. The government of India guidelines gave directions for several exemptions during the lockdown period to facilitate unhindered activities related to agriculture and farming so as to ensure essential supplies without facing many difficulties during the lockdown. Based on the policy directions of GoI, various Ministries/ Departments of State Governments issued implementation guidelines to facilitate the continuation of activities related to agriculture and allied sectors. In the light of these guidelines, ICAR has prepared state-wise advisories for all 29 states depending on prevailing crop stage and safety measures to be followed in various farm operations such as harvesting, post-harvest, storage and marketing activities (enclosed) for wider communication and dissemination to farmers in local languages through KVKs, ICAR Research Institutes and SAUs. In addition, ICAR offered its facilities at its 100 institutes across the country to be used as quarantine centres to accommodate 10000 cases in an emergency.

General precautions and safety measures in harvesting, post-harvest operations, storage and marketing of produce In order to avoid the field level contagious spread of Corona virus in agrarian activities, farmers are advised to follow the following precautions:
 In case of manual field operations of harvesting/ picking, accomplish the operation in 4-5feet spaced strips assigning one strip to one person. This will ensure adequate spacing between the engaged labour.
  All the persons engaged should use masks and ensure hand washing with shop at reasonable intervals.
  Maintain safe distance of 3-4 feet during rest, taking of meals, transfer of produce at collection point, loading/unloading.
  Stagger the field operations wherever possible and avoid engaging more number of persons on the same day.
 Engage only the healthy persons to the extent possible and after reasonable enquiry as to avoid the entry of any suspect or likely carrier during field activity.
  Prefer mechanized operations over the manual ones wherever feasible. Only the essestial numbers of persons should be allowed to accompany the machine.
 All machines should be sanitized at the entry point and at regular intervals. All transport vehicles, gunny bags or other packaging material should also be sanitized.  The collection of the produce may be done in small heaps spaced at 3-4 feets and field level processing should be assigned to 1-2 persons/heap to avoid crowding.

 In case the farm level storage is possible, avoid immediate rush to the market.

  Follow the standard safety measures during the visit to market for the purchase of inputs/sale of produce.

ICAR'S State-Specific guidelines and advisory for farmers and farming sector Please  Click Here to Download  the PDF File



Source ; ICAR