Writers: Swikriti satyal/ Rakshya wagle
Founder member of "Nepal Agriculture Student Association- NASA"
The human civilization has been facing different pandemics since the ancient times. In the realm of infectious diseases, a pandemic is the worst case scenario.
Short hitory of some pandemics:
The first pandemic to be arise in 541 AD and was "justinian plague", It was spread throughout the mediterranean. Later on in 11th century, The pandemic "leprosy" arise, similarity in 1350 the pandemic " The black death" arise and around 1/3rd of the world population died.
"The great plague of london"(1665), "The first chlorea pandemic"(1817),"The third plague pandemic"(1885), "Fiji measels pamdemics"(1875), "Russian flu"(1819), "spanish flu"(1918), "Asian flu"(1957), "HIV/AIDS"(1981) are other pandemic.
SARS:
in 2003 SARS (severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) is believed to be started from bats,spread to cats and then humans in china, followed by 26 other countries, infecting 8,096 people with 774 deaths.
Covid-19:
In 2019 nov 17 the first case of covid-19 was reported in Hubei province in china and on march 11,2020 WHO announced that covid-19 virus was officially a pandemic.
Effect of corona virus on economy:
Nepalese economy is basically based on Agro-tourism. Tourists are the main source of income but due to this global pandemic, the tourism based napalese economy has been strongly hit. Foreign employment has also been serving the significant role in the nepalese economy as remittence but this source has also been affected.
For the fight against the covid-19 and make balance in economy, The government of nepal in this FY 2020 has allocated 41.4 billion for the agriculture sector. As compared to the before FY it was an increment by 6.6 billion.
While presenting the budget estimates for FY 2020/21 minister Dr.yuba raj khatiwada said,"Double agriculture producton can be done through cooperative, contract and modern farming with the investment of private sector."
If this budget will be properly utilized, then the GDP will be increased drastically. If we analyse the data of previous year, The GDP from the agriculture sector has been decreasing. The proper utilization and management of the budget will definitely serve in increment of GDP from agriculture sector.
Nepal must take dramatic action to make sure economy is moving through this disaster. There will be the impact of 2-8% of GDP of this lockdown continue for 2-3 months more. Government must take extra fund available for banks to lend to companies it is because business is already taking hit and nobody knows how bad it will hit but this is confirm that it depend on how long this spread lasts.
Protecting the measure of government and non governmental are severely affecting the economic activities. There is a high impact on GDP but this impact is directly related to number of days the lockdown will be there.
" extending the days for lockdown means extending the adverse impact on economy".
Effects of Corona virus on agricultural production:
The spread of Covid-19 and the resultant lockdown have already started to affect agriculture and food security in Nepal. At this global pandemic period,Due to the fear of Covid-19 transmission,the government of Nepal enforced lockdown and social distancing as a result of which the entire economy, including agricultural activities,have come to critical stage.
Though winter rain was beneficial to wheat cultivation ,due to the lack of farm machinery and necessary human resources,the harvest of wheat and other winter crops is certain to be below the expected yield. Along with these crops,the seasonal vegetables are being unsold and rotten in farmer's field due to constrained transportation and market unavailability.Due to this reason farmers are compelled to either bury or leave their matured vegetables to be rotten in their field.Farmers feel devasted as they are unable to harvest and sell their ripened crop and face severe economic loss.
For instance,in this peak harvesting season,banana growers in chitwan are panicked that if the condition persists , the fruit would ripen and rot on the plant which could mean zero payback on their initial investment. The early report suggests that the loss worth 10 million Nepali rupees has been incurred.
Hunger strike due to covid-19:
The prolonged effect of Covid-19 could force agricultural powerhouse countries like China,USA,India to impose a ban on food exports.As a result,in countries like Nepal, countries food shortages resulting a countrywide starvation is imminent. Even at present where low supply is causing market imbalance ,market price are expected to skyrocket as soon.In one hand due to lack of transportation and marketing, the crops are being rotten in farmer's field and in the other hand ,citizens are dying because of hunger . In this regard,Further action should be taken to over come this problem.
The Ministry of Agriculture in Nepal has declared five notable policies to combat the adversities brought about by Covid-19.These include:
-Equal distribution of relief package for production.
-Easy loan for farmers.
-Agriculture extension advisory services for farmers.
-Government support on insurance of crop and livestock.
-Minimum support prices for agricultural products.
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