Government exempted several services linked to the agricultural sector from the lockdown provisions on Friday amid concerns that the preparations for the harvesting season were getting affected. Government had lifted restrictions from selling of farm seeds and other related material on Thursday.

The Friday addendum released by the home ministry exempts agencies engaged in procurement of agricultural products including MSP (minimum support price) operations, Mandis (wholesale markets) run by the agriculture produce market committee or as notified by the state government, farming operations by farmers and farm workers in the field, custom hiring centres (CHC) related to farm machines, manufacturing and packaging units of fertilizers, pesticides and seeds along with movement of harvesting and sowing related machines.

The intervention came amid reports that farmers in Punjab and Haryana were hamstrung due to migrant farm labourers leaving for their homes and concerns over delay in procurement of crops by the government due to the coronavirus outbreak and the subsequent nationwide lockdown to check it.

A directive to allow for harvesting and marketing of horticulture produce was issued by the Punjab government on Friday along with assurances of smooth procurement and timely payments for the harvest of wheat.

Haryana government had yesterday given similar assurances and ordered staggered procurement of mustard and wheat from mid April if the situation normalizes and requested farmers to store food grains in their homes till then.

The central government had yesterday announced advance payment of Rs 2,000 under PM Kisan scheme to assist approximately 8.69 crore farmers.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar has demanded that the government makes separate arrangement for the farm sector as farmers will find it difficult to repay loans due to untimely rains and hailstorms in some parts of the country.

In a letter to the prime minister, Pawar said farmers were further inconvenienced by halting of operations due to unavailability of labourers and other resources. He said standing crops were unattended, harvesting had been halted and farmers were also struggling with transportation, warehousing and marketing of their produce.

"The package for agriculture sector is not enough. It is impossible for the farmers to repay crop loan. Separate arrangements are also required for horticulture farmers as well," Pawar said.

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