After India gained independence in 1947, the country’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, in a speech, had said: “Everything else can wait, not agriculture”. But the lockdown has imposed just that upon millions of farmers in the country.

Earlier, during the first week of April, the farmers used to be in the mandis, happily counting their hard-earned money, but this year they are yet to harvest. They are praying for their crop to be somehow harvested and to reach the mandis safely.

Forty-five-year old Sukrampal, a farmer living in Shahjanpur village in Haryana is in distress for the past one week. His 10 acres of wheat is ready to be harvested, but he is neither getting labourers nor wheat harvesting machines.

He informed Gaon Connection: “Wheat harvesting is already delayed by 12 days. My worries are increasing with the temperature. If it rains, everyone will be ruined. These crops have been painstakingly grown by all of us. Our produce had already been hit by the inclement weather and now we face the shortfall of labourers and machines. If we do not begin harvesting any sooner, the wheat would fall to the ground.”

The lockdown has aggravated the problem of farmers who cultivate far away from the village. They are not able to reach their fields. They don’t even have the option to start harvesting themselves.

Abhijit Murlidhar Devre, residing in Pune, Maharashtra, is a native of Satana taluka in Nashik district. His cultivable land is in the village of Pingalvada, and here wheat was cultivated this time in two acres. The wheat crop was ready for harvesting 10 days ago, but the harvesting could not be done.

Abhijit said over the phone: “I sought a permission from the Pune police to go to Nashik but could not get it. The villages is 350 kms away from here. The police are saying that the lockdown will be violated if they start permitting everyone through. I think that the corona crisis is really grave, but harvesting is also necessary. Let us see what happens. I hope it does not rain.”

The 21-day lockdown in the country since March 25 has put rabi crop farmers in deep trouble. The harvesting of Rabi crops like wheat, pulses, oilseeds has stopped due to the stalled movement of labourers, harvesters, thresher, tractors, trucks and other equipment. The farmers are disturbed. Also, from May-June, there must begin preparations for sowing of kharif crops.

The Agriculture Ministry has projected a record 2919.5 lakh tonnes of total food grain production, including wheat, rice, coarse cereals and pulses, etc, in the year 2019-20, which will be much higher than the previous year (2018-19) of 28.52.1 lakh tonnes.

The major crop of Rabi season is wheat. According to the report of the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, record production of wheat is expected in 2019-20. Wheat was sown in an area of 3.36.1 lakh hectares by the end of January 2020 as compared to 2.99.3 lakh hectares during the same year last year. The Agriculture Ministry’s February report said that with good rains and high sowing, wheat production in the country could reach 1,062.1 lakh tonnes in 2019-20. This will be the highest ever production of wheat. In the year 2018-19, a record 1036 lakh tonnes of wheat was produced.

The government, on its part, has said that the work of harvesting can be undertaken in the fields by maintaining social distancing, but the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, in a statement issued on March 31, has advised the farmers that they do the harvesting only with machines.

Due to delay in wheat harvesting, government procurement of wheat has been delayed by 15 to 20 days. In Uttar Pradesh, the country’s largest state, the government procurement of wheat starts from April 1 every year, but due to the lockdown, wheat procurement will begin from April 15, this year. In Madhya Pradesh, government procurement will also be held from April 15 except in some districts. In Haryana, wheat was to be procured from April 1, which will now be from April 20, while Punjab will start procurement from April 20.

The farmers of Punjab and Haryana are most concerned at present. Both the states are the first and second in the country in terms of wheat production. In the central pool quota, about 70 per cent of wheat comes from these two states, which is then distributed across the country under the Public Distribution System (PDS). In the year 2018-19, the Centre had procured 357.95 lakh metric tonnes of wheat under the central pool, out of which 126.92 lakh metric tonnes of wheat was from Punjab and 87.84 lakh metric tonnes of wheat from Haryana. This season, the farmers of these two states are suffering from paucity of both harvesting machines and labourers.

Nripendra Singh, a farmer living in the village of Begawali in Fazilka district of Punjab, said: “My wheat harvesting is four-five days away, but we still don’t have the machines. Our machines are being used for harvesting in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. They too are not able to function properly due to lockdown. We are worried as to what would we do if the machines do not arrive in time.”

Rabi season harvesting in central Indian states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh begins as early as February-March. The cultivation of chana and mustard is also aplenty in these two states. The harvesting machines from Haryana and Punjab, had gone to these states before the lockdown and are still held up there.

Swami Indra, the farmer leader of Bhartiya Kisan Union residing in Kurukshetra, Haryana, said that farmers may still get their machines on time, but the biggest problem would that be of the labourers. He explained: “Wheat will be harvested in Haryana-Punjab, but how it will be weighed at the mandis is a big problem. Most of the agricultural work in both the states is done by labourers from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar who have returned to their homes.”

He added: “Normally, when the farmers reach the mandi, they are lined up in queues for several days, and when there are no labourers this season, the work will come to a total stop. The future of farmers looks bleak.”

Suresh Prasad Mishra, a farmer from Mauganj village in Rewa district by Madhya Pradesh-Uttar Pradesh border, has grown wheat in 10 acres this year. Due to good rains, the crop has also been very good, but he is worried because of non-harvesting.

He told Gaon Connection over the phone: “It was with great difficulty that the crop could be saved this year – fist from the rain, then hailstorm and now the lockdown, but now it seems impossible to protect it anymore. Wheat has ripened and if the harvesting is delayed five-six days longer, the crop would fall to the ground. I am harvesting with my two children, but it still will take a lot of time.”

About seven acres of crop of Krishna Kumar, a farmer from Hanumangarh district of Rajasthan, is ready. He had planted chana in five acres and two acres of wheat, but is now worried.

He said: “Most of our labourers came from other areas of Rajasthan. As soon as the harvesting season starts, they begin arriving, but this time, we are waiting for them in our area. This evening was cloudy, we had feared rains, thankfully, those clouds went away.”

The government has allowed machine harvesting but the problem is also of those running combine machine. Artisans (phone men, drivers) etc., who run the machines in many states, including Uttar Pradesh, come from Punjab. Some artisans also go from Banda and Mohammadi in Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, but they are not allowed to move. At the same time, numerous farmers are facing difficulty to arrange tools and spare parts for these machines.

“The crop is ready, but the machines are not running yet,” said Brihaspati Pandey, a journalist and farmer living in the Basti district of Uttar Pradesh.

Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh government and the district administration say that there is no problem in the movement of combine machines, machines can go to other districts and states also. Anuj Kumar Jha, district magistrate of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, said: “We have taken full care of the farmer’s harvesting and sowing of new crops. Combine machines and thresher are running. Manure and seed shops are also absolutely open.”

Ramkumar Singh, a resident of Belhara village in Barabanki district, about 42 kms away from Lucknow, said: “Due to lockdown, we farmers are facing a great deal of hardships. The wheat crop is ready and we are not even getting labour for its harvesting. Before the lockdown, we had a labour market from where labourers could easily be hired.

At present, garlic, onion is also being dug up, but there are no labourers. Even if we do it on our own it is bewildering to decide what to do first. Last year and this year too, the weather has been pretty rough, now if there happens a thunderstorm somewhere everything would be ruined. Now everything is in the hands of the Almighty.”