Farmers in fields with masks and sickles, observing social distancing
Dharamsala, April 28
The farmers have started harvesting crop harvesting with social distancing in the lower reaches of Himcahal Pradesh in the lockdown period following corona virus pandemic. This is perhaps first time that everyone is working under the fear of Corona Virus and wearing mask to stay safe. People are harvesting crops while maintaining social distancing and sweating in the heat to collect the farm produce as soon as possible as fear of bad weather also looms around.
Significantly. The crop harvesting has started in lower reaches of districts including Kangra, Una, Hamirpur, Mandi, Solan and Sirmour while the harvesting in the higher altitudes is expected to start after a week.
Jai Ram Thakur Chief Minister has directed the government machinery to allow and help farmers to harvest their crops in the lockdown period.
The farmers are also facing problem with threshing mechanism and being fleeced as district administrations in many districts has not fixed rates for threshing and ploughing.
Meanwhile, orchardists in higher reaches are reportedly facing problems to maintain fruit crops especially Apple that need repeated spray during growth. Producers of Cherry, Khumani and plum are also facing huge economic loss as they are either unable to take their produce to market or they were not getting best price of the produce.
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