Need to put economy back on track : Focus on farm sector
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: December 12 2020 -

The need of the hour is clear. The Government should focus on how to put the economy back on track.

The virus is still out there and it continues to take its toll, pushing the death toll beyond the 300 mark, but the reason why the country and Manipur have come out from the Ldckdown phase should be understood.

This is a point which must have already dawned on the Government and focus should now be on how to revive the numerous small time trades from whch many made a living doing small time business, such as running an eatery and opening leikai shops, leikai hotels, not to speak of those who earned their livelihoods plying school vans and driving school buses.

Understandably schools are yet to re-open rendering school vans and school buses idle and depriving the drivers and the handymen of their earning avenue.

Auto-rickshaws have slowly started plying on the roads, under the condition that they do not carry more passengers than the numbers laid down by the Government.

Same too is the case with inter-State buses - the passenger buses which ply on the Imphal-Dimapur, Imphal-Guwahati, Imphal-Shillong route.

COVID-19 has certainly taken a heavy toll on the people and other than the points mentioned, thousands of people who were otherwise making a living by working at hotels, beauty parlours, as sales girls and sales boys in the cities of India, have had to return home and thoughts should be given on how such a huge work force, who otherwise had found meaningful employment outside can be accommodated.

Obviously the fledgling private sector in Manipur cannot be expected to absorb all those who have returned and this is where the Government may look at the avenues which may absorb them.

December 12 is Nupi Lan and if one goes back for a brief look at the historic women uprising, one may factor in on the point that the haphazard rainfall of 1939 coupled with the free trade policy of the then British Raj and the presence of some business sharks led to the rice shortage forcing the womenfolk to rise in revolt.

Fast forward 81 years to 2020 and this year the Monsoon has fortunately been good with no report of any crippling shortage of rainfall or excess rainfall and perhaps this is where the Government may study the feasibility of taking one hard look at the agriculture sector and see how those who have now become unemployed after losing their jobs in other parts of the country due to the pandemic may be absorbed in the farm sector.

The farm sector or Agriculture is one sector which managed to buck the negative impact of COVID-19 and if verbal interactions and reports from the fields are anything to go by, then rice production this year will see a marked improvement over the previous year.

This is one sector where the Government may focus its attention on and draw the many youngsters, who have returned, to this sector as an avenue of a-meaningful employment.

This is where the Government would need to focus on how to increase productivity and fix the price of the agricultural produces which would be beneficial to those engaged in farming.

Consult agricultural scientists, explore the possibility of introducing double, triple farming across the State and look at the feasibility of crop rotation.