Activities undertaken by ICAR Research Institutes to mitigate farmers’ problems during COVID-19 pandemic
The ICAR has responded to the challenges posed by COVID-19 pandemic to farmers and farming sector across the country in tune with the policy directions and guidelines issued by the Government of India to all the States and Union Territories. ICAR alerted the farmers and stakeholders across the country on the precautions, safety measures and need for social distancing while carrying out the time-bound field operations such as harvesting, post-harvest processing, storage and marketing of grains, fruits, vegetables, eggs meat and fish. It also issued an agro-advisory at the national level, which has been translated into 15 regional languages, widely circulated and has received prime coverage in print, electronic and social media across the country. ICAR has prepared state-wise agroadvisories for farmers in all the 29 states depending on prevailing crop stage and safety measures to be followed in various farm operations related to standing crops and crops that are getting ready for harvest. The advisories will be used for dissemination after translation in local languages through various print and electronic media and digital platforms by all stakeholders. This e-book captures the ICAR initiatives for supporting farmers and farming sector across the country in our endeavour to fight this pandemic ever to fight this dreaded disease by dovetailing safety measures with the time-bound agricultural operations to ensure health and wellbeing of our farming community and ensure food security through stability in production systems.
ICAR comes up with an e-book on innovative agri-solutions during COVID-19
COVID-19 pandemic challenged many assumption of the modern life throughout the world. The economy of major countries has by and large come to a grinding halt. The challenge became still tougher as the lockdown resulted in shortage of farm labour on one hand and disruption of marketing channels at the end of consumers on the other. Items like poultry, dairy, fruit and vegetables started perishing and this resulted into destruction of a lot of food which otherwise could have been consumed by the people. ICAR Agricultural Extension Network took the challenge and became proactive in devising and suggesting practical solutions to the affected farmers. There were a very large number of such innovative examples throughout the country which needed to be documented for their subsequent emulation by the farmers and extension personnel. The urgency of delivering contents of this compilation to the ultimate beneficiaries at the earliest possible necessitated keeping the form of this publication as an electronic one. The compilation of an electronic book on ‘Innovative agri-solutions during COVID-19’ is an important collection of unique examples of innovative actions and options suggested to the farmers.