India is home to 140 million farm households and approximately 120 million smallholder farmers who contribute close to 40 percent of the country’s grain production and more than 50 percent of its fruits, vegetables, oilseeds, and other crops. A significant section of the global share such as wheat and rice comes from India where almost half of the population relies on agriculture for their livelihood.  

Now for a second, keeping the ruthless challenges this sector has been experiencing aside, reports show that low rainfall, price volatility, and rising debts are the three primary risks this sector grapples with year on year. COVID-19 brought along a major challenge in the form of domestic and international travel restrictions which created mutants in the form of labor scarcity and exports. 

Now before I plunge into the story of the third sector of this series, it’s important for us to be introduced to both sides of this imbalance: the first being definitely the farmers and the second, Government.

Now, what did the government do when the knee-jerk reaction of the mass exodus of migrant labor commenced in March 2020?

The Indian Finance Ministry declared a welfare package of INR 1.7 trillion aiming to protect the vulnerable sections of the society from any adverse impacts that might tag along with the Coronavirus pandemic. The announcement, however, contained an advance release of INR 2000 to bank accounts of farmers as income support under the PM-KISAN scheme. The government also went ahead and raised the wage rate for workers engaged under the NREGA scheme. Additional grain allotments along with cash and food assistance were announced to registered beneficiaries, mostly migrant workers via the PM CARES (Prime Minister Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations) fund.