Photos: Wheat harvest hopes to bring some respite for farmers

India’s agriculture output is seen growing faster than expected in the current financial year, emerging as the lone bright spot at a time when the coronavirus pandemic is taking out the economy’s growth engines one after another, said a report in Bloomberg Quint on April 16, 2020. However, Punjab and Haryana, cultivators are in the middle of winter-sown harvesting. Two key winter crops being harvested now, wheat and oilseeds such as mustard, account for nearly three-fourths of seasonal farm incomes. The coronavirus lockdown has made life harder for farmers during the ongoing harvest season as authorities enforce new rules to stagger crop sales in the usually chaotic mandis, or agricultural markets, where it is easy for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) to spread.

Updated on: Apr 22, 2020 8:41 PM IST

News

Share via

• 
• 
• 
• 

Copy link

• 

1/9

View Photos in a new improved layout

Updated on Apr 22, 2020 8:41 PM

A farmer carries bundles of wheat while harvesting a field by hand in the Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh, India, on Tuesday, April 21. Social distancing rules have doubled the time and labour required to clear harvested stocks, and while the farmers don’t mind practicing that, they want the government to compensate them. (Prashanth Vishwanathan / Bloomberg)

2/9

View Photos in a new improved layout

Updated on Apr 22, 2020 8:41 PM

An irrigation canal passes through wheat fields in the Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh, India, on Tuesday, April 21. (Prashanth Vishwanathan / Bloomberg)

3/9

View Photos in a new improved layout

Updated on Apr 22, 2020 8:41 PM

Wheat is harvested in this aerial view over the Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh, India, on Tuesday, April 21. Labour costs have doubled because farmers are now being required to first hold the harvested crops before transporting them to the state-regulated markets on specified dates. (Prashanth Vishwanathan / Bloomberg)

4/9

View Photos in a new improved layout

Updated on Apr 22, 2020 8:41 PM

A combine harvester cuts wheat in a field in this aerial view over the Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh, India, on Tuesday, April 21. (Prashanth Vishwanathan / Bloomberg)

5/9

View Photos in a new improved layout

Updated on Apr 22, 2020 8:41 PM

A thresher operates during a wheat harvest at a field in this aerial view taken over the Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh, India, on Tuesday, April 21. Asia’s third-largest economy is seen headed for a rare annual contraction, as a more than month-long lockdown to prevent the virus’s spread effectively puts a lid on consumption -- which makes up about 60% of India’s gross domestic product, according to a Bloomberq Quint report on April 16, 2020. (Prashanth Vishwanathan / Bloomberg)

6/9

View Photos in a new improved layout

Updated on Apr 22, 2020 8:41 PM

Farmers throw bundles of cut wheat at a field in the Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh, India, on Tuesday, April 21. Farm sector growth will top 3% in the year started April 1, Ramesh Chand, an adviser to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said in a telephone interview to Bloomberg on Monday, April 13, 2020. (Prashanth Vishwanathan / Bloomberg)

7/9

View Photos in a new improved layout

Updated on Apr 22, 2020 8:41 PM

Farmers' tiffin carriers lay on the ground as a thresher operates during a wheat harvest at a field in the Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh, India, on Tuesday, April 21. (Prashanth Vishwanathan / Bloomberg)

8/9

View Photos in a new improved layout

Updated on Apr 22, 2020 8:41 PM

A dog sits on wheat grain at the Dankaur Grain Market in the Gautam Buddh Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh, India, on Tuesday, April 21. (Prashanth Vishwanathan / Bloomberg)

9/9

View Photos in a new improved layout

Updated on Apr 22, 2020 8:41 PM

A motorcyclist travels past sacks of wheat sitting at the Dankaur Grain Market in the Gautam Buddh Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh, India, on Tuesday, April 21. Since wheat crops used a lot of mechanized techniques, migrant labour headed back to their villages might not hit the wheat harvest as badly as it does perhaps other crops. (Prashanth Vishwanathan / Bloomberg)