Hurdles remain despite coronavirus lockdown exemption for farming

Challenges remain on the ground. Curfew passes are also difficult to obtain from DMs, collectors

Jagannath, a marginal farmer from Malhargarh town in Mandsaur district of Madhya Pradesh, the epicentre of a farmers’ agitation a few years ago, has faced a peculiar problem over the past few weeks since the 21-day nationwide lockdown to check the spread of Covid-19 was imposed.
 

Heightened police scrutiny of his movements. “Though the government exempted farming and harvesting operations from the lockdown, we have to convince the local constable every time we go out that it is to work in the fields and nothing else,” Jagannath says.
 

Shenu Agarwal, chief executive officer of Escorts Agri-Machinery, one of the largest