The nationwide lockdown has not only affected the households but also severely affected the supply chain of fruits and vegetables despite the government allowing the transportation of goods. In times like this, few residential communities in Bengaluru city have made arrangements to directly buy from the farmers.
As soon as the lockdown was announced, there were multiple reports of farmers leaving their crops to rot in the open as they failed to arrange transport for their produce. While quite a few of them managed to arrange transport with great difficulty, strict measures of social distancing had virtually shut down major markets like the KR Market and Russel Market. This resulted in excess of storage with the farmers and the end consumers paying more for their staple as the produce failed to reach the retailers.
Farm-to-Door Arrangement
A few volunteers and residential communities figured out a solution. Deepanjali Naik, a resident and a member of the Resident Welfare Association, who have been using milk, vegetables, and eggs directly supplied by the farmers much before the lockdown, feels that the arrangement now seems beneficial. Following this, Horticultural Producers’ Co-operative Marketing and Processing Society (HOPCOMS) are also making efforts to take the produce from the farmers and delivering it directly to the doorsteps of residents, a farm-to-door arrangement.
The Chairman of the quasi-government body of farmers and the state Horticulture Department, GR Sreenivasan said,
“We have 15 vehicles all around the city targeting apartment complexes on each day of the week to supply fresh vegetables and fruits.”
He also further claimed that these are tough times for farmers as they are finding difficult to arrange transport to the interiors of the city. He also claimed that there is no drastic change in the pricing of the products and the supplies in the HOPCOMS are usual across the city. In similar initiatives, Caremongers India is also helping farmers to sell their produce to the consumers directly.
The nationwide lockdown is scheduled to end on the 14th of April 2020 but the developments in the last few days have hinted at the extension of the lockdown. Various state governments and even the authorities are in favou\r of extending the lockdown as the COVID-19 crisis deepens. The Prime Minister is supposed to take a call after a meeting with all the Chief Ministers on the 11th of April.
