Production In Rural Sector Becomes Indian Economy’s Support System During Lockdown
Coronavirus is creating havoc in the entire world. In India, today the cases have reached 37,776 and total cases in world amounts to 3.39M.
India is in a lockdown state since 40 days and lockdown 3.0 has extended the current lockdown till 17th May. Most of the businesses and companies that boost our economy lies in a standstill due to the lockdown. However, the production in rural sector has started and this is helping economy to come back on its track. Only the contributions made by this sector is not sufficient but every drop counts!
In the era of Corona epidemic, even though there are clouds of crisis on the country’s economy, the light of rural India is visible among these clouds. According to the information from sources, the government has also started the exercise to transport the crop directly from the fields to the big cities and then export. The government is confident that there will be a good crop this year, which will increase the income of the farmers and by increasing that income, demand will also arise in the industry. Due to the indications received in the month of April, the NITI Aayog has hoped that the country will see an increase in agricultural growth and the environment is also favourable for a good crop in the first quarter of the year.
Favourable monsoon to accelerate agricultural growth
NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand suggested that social distancing is easy to follow in rural areas of the country. In such a situation, the focus should be on measures to promote the products there. According to him, the monsoon is expected to be good this year. Sources of water are 40–60 per cent higher than last year. So far in April this year, fertilizer sales have increased by 8% to 13.5 lakh tonnes. Seed sales from Krishi Vigyan Kendras also increased by 20 per cent in April this year compared to the previous year. Ramesh Chand said that if the government can provide better infrastructure for the farmers then it will increase employment at the village level.
Common service center will join export chain
The Center has also started extensive efforts in this direction. Dinesh Tyagi, CEO of the Common Service Center, which promotes digital services across the rural sector on behalf of the government, said that a strategy to export the products directly from the farmers’ fields is underway. He said that in the current era, rural e-stores are being run by the Common Service Center.
This is an icing on the cake that amidst such crisis when urban areas are in a complete lockdown due to spread of coronavirus and the high density of population, rural areas can keep our economy on track to some extent.
