BHUBANESWAR: The State Government has granted relaxation for activities related to agriculture and allied sector with a view to address problems being faced by the farming community due to lockdown. This will ensure irrigation needs of standing rabi paddy and uninterrupted harvesting of pulses and oil seeds. The relaxation was given amid complaints from farmers and farmers’ organisations over the huge loss of pulses and oil seeds. The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued a second addendum to its earlier guidelines relating to the nationwide lockdown.
“Activities related to agriculture and related products, services and such other activities have been brought under the exception categories from the 21-day lockdown,” said Principal Secretary of Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment Saurabh Garg. This will allow unhindered harvesting of summer crops and taking care of the vegetable crops which have suffered loss due to lockdown, he added. Rabi crops like black gram, moong, groundnut, mustard and sesame are ready for harvest.
“After the lockdown, we prefer to go to our crop fields in the wee hours to avoid the police attention. Apart from water, application of pesticides is the need of the hour to save the crops from pest attack,” said Basant Barik, a progressive farmer of Balasore district. The Centre has also removed restrictions on transportation of food grains to mandis and production of agricultural implements.