Niti Aayog Member (Agriculture) Ramesh Chand on Sunday said the second Covid-19 wave will not impact the Indian agriculture sector in anyway as rural areas saw spread of infections in May when agriculture activities remained at bare minimum.
In an interview with PTI, Chand said that India’s policies on subsidy, price and technology have remained too much in favour of rice, wheat and sugarcane, and there is need to make the procurement and minimum support price policy favourable to pulses.
“Covid-19 cases started spreading in the rural areas in the month of May, with the beginning of the month of May, and agriculture activity in the month of May is bare minimal, particularly land-based activities,” he added. “...It (May) is a peak summer month and no crop is sown, no crop is harvested except little bit vegetables and some off-season crops,” Chand further explained.
