Delay in harvesting in Pakistan and India due to lockdown

Farmers are also facing difficulties due to the lockdown being implemented in Pakistan and India, two of South Asia's most vulnerable countries, because their crops are ready to be harvested, but they have to face labor shortages.

In both countries, several varieties of crops are ripe and farmers are in serious trouble when their ripe crops are not harvested on time.

Millions of farmers are forced to watch their ripe crops rot due to the lack of labor available for harvesting due to lockdown and lack of transport.

In the region where many crops are ripe, there is only a month left for the famous fruit mango to ripen, and experts have already expressed concern that there is no timely harvest and in their other areas. Lack of supply can lead to food shortages in the region.

Speaking to Turkish news agency Anatoloo, Ahmad Ali of Pakistan's northeastern province of Punjab said that his wheat crop is ready, which he has been trying for days to find workers for the harvest, but he failed Found.

Wheat harvest will start in Punjab next week and Ahmed Ali is also one of the thousands of farmers who are having difficulty finding workers for harvesting.

About 70% of farmers or landowners across Pakistan rely on people or laborers to harvest crops that come from low-income and poor areas every season, but this time due to the lockdown due to the Corona virus. The workers could not come.

Ahmed Ali, 37, who is cultivating 7 acres of land in Okara district of Punjab, said that there is a severe shortage of laborers for harvesting the crop and they have no other option.

Although landowners in Pakistan also use machinery for harvesting crops, their transportation is also banned due to corona.

But Prime Minister Imran Khan last week allowed the opening of Goods Transport and Harvesting machinery and repair shops to avoid a potential food shortage.

In this regard, Ahmad Ali told Anatoly that the harvesting machinery needed repair every time, and since the first shops were closed and now open, the machinery was there and the repairmen were down. ۔

Its neighbors, like Pakistan, have almost the same status as farmers or landowners in India, and there are also provinces like Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Gujarat that serve as centers for foodgrains in the country. Landowners face a shortage of labor for harvesting crops.

India's Punjab state farmer Sreendra Singh Bhatti told Anatoly that the wheat and gram harvesting season has begun there but they do not have any labor to harvest.