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Giving a big relief to farmers, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced that wholesale and retail shops of fertilisers, seeds and pesticides would remain open during lockdown,.
On the directions of the chief minister, directives have been issued to all divisional commissioners, district magistrates and district police chiefs in this regard, a government spokesman said here on Friday.
He said to ensure smooth supply in the farm sector, companies making fertilisers, seeds and pesticides and workers loading and unloading these inputs and vehicles transporting them would also be exempted from lockdown restrictions.
The spokesman added that combine harvesters used in harvesting and workers operating them would also be exempted from lockdown restrictions during this period.
It may be mentioned here that this year, the farmers are already in distress due to the unpredictable weather in February-March. At present, mustard, potato, pea and gram crops are either in the field or in barns. Wheat crop is also getting ready to be harvested.
“In such a situation, the farmers are worried that because of lockdown, they would be unable to safely shift their produce to their homes. At the same time, farmers, whose agricultural fields have been cleared or are about to be cleared, are also worried because they have to sow green fodder, urad, moong before kharif crop,” an official said.
This decision has given the much needed relief to farmers who sow vegetables as well as do traditional farming.