NEW DELHI: Niti Aayog member (agriculture) Ramesh Chand on Sunday said the second Covid-19 wave will not impact the Indian agriculture sector in anyway as rural areas saw spread of infections in May when agriculture activities remained at bare minimum.
Chand said that India’s policies on subsidy, price and technology have remained too much in favour of rice, wheat and sugarcane, and there is need to make the procurement and minimum support price policy favourable to pulses.
“Covid cases started spreading in the rural areas in May, and agriculture activity in the month is bare minimal,” he added.
“…it (May) is a peak summer month and no crop is sown, no crop is harvested except some off-season crops.” Agriculture activity, he said, peaks in March or till middle of April.
“So even if less availability of labour is there in May till mid-June, I don’t think that will impact agriculture,” he said.
Covid: Second wave won’t hit agri sector, says Niti Aayog member
