Venkaiah Naidu urges for top priority to farmers amid lockdown; suggests measures

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday asked Centre and state governments to accord top priority to farmers and agriculture during lockdown and vised m to facilitate smooth conduct of farming activities and transportation of agri-produce during this period.

During an interaction with Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Vice President appreciated various measures taken by Agriculture Ministry to protect farm sector. According to an official release, Vice President laid stress on safeguarding interests of both producers and consumers.

"Producers in agriculture are t organised and often ir views go unheard. So it is duty of governments to protect ir interests," Naidu said.

Naidu said that though it is mainly duty of states, Centre should guide and help m from time to time in this regard. Calling for more focus on perishable agro-produce such as fruits and vegetables, Naidu furr said that special care must be taken of stor and marketing of se perishables.

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He also suggested tweaking of APMC Act suitably so as to facilitate purchase of farm produce directly from farmers so that body is forced to go to  mandi. This will help in ensuring equate availability of fruits, vegetables and or agri-commodities to consumers, he said.

Laying stress on need to ensure smooth transportation of farm produce, he asked authorities to ensure that re is hindrance during such transportation.

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India under lockdown

Meanwhile, Centre has imposed a complete lockdown in India till May 3 as a measure to prevent spre of dely COVID-19 which has infected more than 11,000 people in country and claimed more than 300 lives. While all or activities have been brought at a halt in wake of nationwide lockdown, manufacture and supply of essentials commodities continue to function in country. 

As a plan of action ahe of monsoon, Maharashtra government has issued revised protocol to be followed by citizens during three-week-long curfew. While many of guidelines issued by Maharashtra Government follow those issued by Centre, one ditional that sticks out is that all urgent pre-monsoon related works will continue during lockdown. 

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