| Covid-19 impacts agriculture in Ladakh region, reveals study | | |
Early Times Report
Jammu, Aug 23: As with other parts of the country, the Covid-19 also impacted agriculture in the cold arid Ladakh region in multiple ways.
This has been authenticated by research findings of scientists from Krishi Vigyan Kendra-Leh, SKUAST-K. A study done by Dr. Parveen Kumar SMS (Ag. Extension) and Dr. Kunzang Lamo SMS (Vegetable Science) from KVK-Leh under the guidance of Dr. D. Namgyal, Prof. and Head at KVK-Leh has come out with the conclusion that the marginal and small farmers have been hit hard by this lockdown.
The study was done with seventy farmers selected randomly from fourteen villages of Leh district. The villages covered for the study were Martselang, Chemday, Matho, Spituk, Sakti, Saboo, Takmachik, Digger, Tyakshi, Hemis, Phyang, Saspol, Tukcha and Liker.
The study was conducted with 59% of male respondents and 41% of female respondents in which 81% of the respondents were marginal owing up to one hectare of land, 12% of the respondents were small with land in between 1 to 2 hectares and 7% of the respondents have land more than 2 ha.
The response of the farmers was collected telephonically as well as by personal interview. The time the virus struck the region and lockdown was enforced, it was the peak season for farmers’ to prepare for vegetable production.
They had to get the seeds and other inputs for sowing of vegetables as well as for raising nursery. Finding themselves squeezed under lockdowns and social distancing and with no transport option, vegetable farmers were the most to face the brunt of COVID-19 pandemic.
Due to lockdown 63% of the farmers’ could not get the vegetable seeds and other inputs in time. This delayed their sowing by about 1 to 1.5 months and 54% of those who could not get the inputs in time had to reduce their area under vegetables by 30 to 50 per cent. A small 7% of farmers also complained of lack of quality seeds. The seeds they purchased from the market were not of good quality and were expensive also.
Lockdown also resulted in shortage of labour. Due to lockdown, the labourers that usually come from other states did not came and this resulted in labour shortage. Ajang Rinchin, a progressive farmer from village Saboo told that usually 250-300 labourers arrive in their area at that time, but now only 20-30 are present.
This labour shortage has resulted in a huge jump in their daily wages. Normally, they were available at rupees 400 to 500 but now they are taking rupees 600-700 per day. As much as 74% of the respondents reported labour shortage, but only 43% of them suffered due to increase in daily wages by this labour shortage. |
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