It is a compilation of selected successful interventions by the KVKs, which is helpful to the farmers in lock down.
The COVID-19 lockdown has impacted different sectors of the Indian economy. Its impact on Indian agriculture has been complex and diverse across various segments of agricultural value chain and across season when the lockdown was announced and crops like wheat, chickpea, mustard etc. were to be harvested. It was also the time for the farm produce to reach markets for procurement by government agencies. The immediate challenge, therefore, was market access for the farm produce, which was problematic due to absence of transportation and unavailability of workers for operations at farm and mandis.
To tackle this situation, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) issued state specific guidelines about harvesting and threshing of rabi crops along with the advisories on handling post-harvest operations like storage and marketing of the farm produce more efficiently. In order to cope with the case specific challenges posed by COVID-19 lockdown, the demand driven and location specific initiatives and innovations were implemented by different field functionaries.
Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs), the outreach arms of ICAR, have once again proven their worth at the grass root level. KVKs tapped full potential of different Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools to address farm challenges during the lockdown and supported farmers and farm women.
The e book ““Innovative Agri – solutions during COVID-19” is a compilation of selected successful interventions by the KVKs, which proved quite helpful to the farmers in beating the heat of COVID-19 lockdown.
