29 April, 2020 | created using FiveFilters.
org
COVID-19 in Rural India-
XXV: Mameran’s Milk
Supply Chain Shaken
Amid Myriad Problems |
NewsClick
Representational image. | Image Courtesy: PxHere
This is the 25th report in a series that provides glimpses into the
impact of COVID-19-related policies on life in rural India. The
series, commissioned by the Society for Social and Economic
Research, comprises reports by various scholars who have been
conducting village studies in different parts of India. The reports
have been prepared on the basis of telephonic interviews with key
informants in their study villages. This article talks about how the
lockdown has disrupted the milk supply chain in Haryana’s
Mameran. Its villagers face a cash crunch with no ATMs or banks
in sight while daily wage labourers face a precarious future.
The lockdown enforced due to a growing number of people
affected by the novel coronavirus pandemic has stunted
agriculture and the rural economy in Mameran village from Sirsa
district in Haryana.
The total population of the village is 4599; there 2455 males and
2144 females (as per the Socio Economic and Caste Census
2011). The Jat community is dominant in the village and other
communities present include Baniyas, Kumhars, Meghwals,
Nayaks, Majahbis and Bajigars.
The Rabi crops of Mameran are wheat and mustard. According to
a farmer, they have been unable to hire labour and equipment due
restrictions on movement owing to the lockdown, and are facing
hurdles in harvesting their crops as a result. Another farmer said
that the combine used for harvesting crops in Mameran usually
comes from Punjab. Due to the lockdown, the machine has not
yet returned to the village from other states (Madhya Pradesh and
Gujarat) where it is also put to use, delaying harvesting in
Mameran.
Impact on crops
Vegetables grown in the village include cabbage, chickpea,
tomato, potato, capsicum, cucumber and green chili. The farmers
were worried if they will be able to sell their crops at all and
whether they would get a good price for them. At the time of
correspondence, vegetable farmers were selling their crops at
low prices with no means of storing the perishable commodities.
One of the farmers said that cabbages were being sold at the
mandi for three to four rupees a kilo—the same produce would
have fetched between eight to ten rupees per kg in normal times.
Another farmer abandoned three acres’ worth of cabbage as the
price being offered for it would not have even covered the cost of
harvesting. Yet another said that the price of chickpea had fallen
from Rs 25 per kg to between Rs 15 and Rs 17 per kg.
The milk situation
Milk supply in Mameran usually involves three players: the
individual milk producer, generally a small farmer in the village;
the middleman, usually a dairy owner in the village or in the city;
and the district-level dairy plant. A milk producer said that the
high price of milk about three months ago (approximately Rs 72
per litre for milk with 10% fat) had led many producers to
purchase more cows and buffaloes.
Then, the VITA dairy plant in Sirsa procured more than two lakh
litres of milk per day. However, after the lockdown began,
procurement by the plant had come down to half, about one lakh
litres per day, due to a decrease in demand for dairy products like
ghee, curd, butter, paneer, lassi, kheer and sweets – items
typically in demand for public functions like ceremonies and
marriages. This affected middlemen and small individual
producers in the village. One of the middlemen, who said he used
to sell 1000 litres of milk every day to the plant before the
lockdown, mentioned the number was down to 600 litres of milk
per day. With no demand, the price of milk with 10% fat had
declined to less than Rs 60 per litre. A milk producer said that
even milk with four percent fat, which used to be sold at Rs 35
per litre was being sold at less than Rs 25 per litre.
The majority of the village’s inhabitants are self-employed
cultivators, and therefore less precariously placed during the
lockdown than those who are self-employed in non-agricultural
occupations, such as tailors, barbers, mechanics, electricians,
plumbers, shopkeepers, masons and informal workers and
casual labourers in the unorganised sector. The village sarpanch
said that between 10% and 15% of the village’s inhabitants are
daily-wage earners who travel outside the village to the nearby
city of Ellenabad, or the district headquarters at Sirsa to work. A
mason from the village said that he used to travel to nearby
villages and cities for work, but the lockdown has restricted his
mobility and he had lost his job.
Approximately one thousand residents of the village are
registered under the MGNREGA scheme. One of the workers
said that since there was no MGNREGA work during the
lockdown, workers had not benefitted from an increase in wages
announced by the finance minister as part of the government’s
relief efforts. The state government of Haryana had announced
financial support of Rs 1000 per week for casual labourers, street
vendors and rickshaw pullers; the amount is to be deposited
directly into their bank accounts. In addition, the Centre had
announced that BPL families would be provided rations
(including rice, wheat, mustard oil, one kg of sugar) free of cost
for the month of April. But none of those spoken to had received
any of the relief measures which had been announced. PDS
cardholders said they had received only five kgs of wheat per
person per month during the lockdown..
During the first two weeks of the lockdown, shops selling
essential commodities like bakeries, vegetable and grocery stores
were open for four hours from 10 a.m. However, from the third
week of the lockdown, these shops were open on alternate days,
and during specific time slots. Chemist shops are open from 10
a.m. to 5.00 p.m. While petrol pumps were open from 7 a.m. to 7
p.m., milk booths were open between 8 a.m. to 11 a.m and again
between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Vegetable and fruit vendors were
allowed to sell their produce for seven hours from 9 a.m.
No liquid money
Villagers in Mameran were also finding it difficult to access cash
to meet their daily needs. A villager said that while they could
borrow money from local shopkeepers earlier, they were refusing
to lend cash because of a cash crunch. The nearest bank branch
is six kms away, in Ellenabad. Villagers suggested that mobile
ATMs could be made accessible to them in the village.
A village council member (panch) from the village said that the
panchyat was enforcing the lockdown by getting together a team
of youngsters to guard village boundaries and restrict the entry
of outsiders. The village is also regularly sanitised. According to
the village head, no one was under home quarantine in the village
or the block, and no one has tested positive for COVID-19 either.
However, villagers said that the village does not have a Primary
Health Centre or a public dispensary and there was only a quack
who they consult for minor ailments. Villagers who require
serious medical care have to travel to the Government Hospital in
Ellenabad. It has been difficult for the poor and the ill to travel
during the lockdown, both due to a lack of transport and the
means to travel.
The COVID-19 lockdown has put casual workers and daily wage
earners into a financially precarious situation; farmers are
anxious about their harvest being delayed; individual milk
producers and middlemen involved in the dairy supply chain have
been hit by the fall in demand; vegetable producers are unable to
sell their produce at good prices; those dependent on the PDS,
MGNREGS and other government schemes are largely yet to
receive the relief promised by both the state and central
governments.
Harmanender Singh is an Assistant Professor with the
Department of Economics at the Akal University in Bathinda,
Punjab
https://www.newsclick.in/COVID-19-Rural-India-Haryana-Milk-
Supply-Chain-Shaken