IS THE SUPPLY OF ESSENTIAL COMMODITIES ON A TOSS???

As an Indian, we all are into the last week of the 21-day lockdown, while believing the certainties it is quite uncertain that this 21-day lockdown will be the final one. It was quite clear from the decisions of the state government of Odisha and Punjab took to extend the lockdown till 30^th of April and 1^st May respectively.

Now in this scenario when we all have almost properly adopted our mind, body, and soul to abide the quarantined life and trying to maintain a good social distance ( well almost majority of us) the extension of the lockdown will hardly have any impact on us, well we all know that the numbers of COVID -19 infected patients and the mortality rate is on the surge so even though we don’t like it we can still abide by the said rules (possibility of extension of lockdown period – as there is no official statement from the government at the time of writing this article.)

 In this time of hardship, we all are happy to stay at home and fight our battles against the eradication of the Chinese Virus. And until the time we get the essential groceries, medicines, etc. we are extremely happy to help the nation fight against the Chinese virus, no doubt that the government had always mentioned that there is no shortage of any essential items and it will be provided to all the citizens at most priority. I do acknowledge the fact that we are only working at the backend of the situation to help the first in line fighters – Doctors and paramedics which are doing an exceptionally great job to help the nation survive the pandemic situation with bare minimum loss.

But in this time of speculation for extension of a lockdown, I ran into an article published on the Wall Street Journal on 8^th April. It read “India’s Food Supply Chaim Frays as People Stay Home” it mentioned that the food supply chain is struggling with a shortage of one of its crucial commodities – that is man force. It explained this by stating that people who are responsible to move the food from farm to fork aren’t showing up for the work. Even the store owners are saying that the basic things like eggs, cooking oil, etc. are hard to find these days. This is mostly due to panic buying situations.

India’s food market is a very fragmented one and no single producer or the buyer could drive it according to the need. And there are millions of stakeholders – from farmers to transporters, middlemen’s, wholesalers, retailers until it reaches the consumer. On the ground, reality states a picture that says that there are fewer trucks showing up to the market with hardly any or no labour to load & unload the materials. The stock is pilling up at times, the distribution network is also slowed down in order to deliver the commodities to the seller. It is even impossible for retailers to reach the wholesale market on their own as per the restrictions imposed. Even if some of the retailers are trying to do this are either facing challenges to work on their own or have the police to forbid their travel. The study showed that more than a huge part of the Indian force is involved in a way or other in developing, processing, delivering and selling food.

As the food supply chain is not restricted by the lockdown a huge number of the workforce is not coming to work due to the fear. And it is impossible to work normally in the absence of such a huge workforce. Even farmers are facing hard times, most of the farms are relatively smaller but the majority of them require a seasonal harvest and that requires a huge workforce, which comes from all over the country as well as from Nepal, but amid this the situation there are travel restrictions and the labour force is unable to move, this is the best time to harvest wheat as a Rabi crop the harvest season has to go up till the month of May.  Many farmers have their crops ready to harvest but the local workers are scared to come out of the houses. Thus, leaving the crop to be harvested either by a single person or let it go wasted.

The retailers have the majority of their shelves empty, they are unable to provide at least 50% of the order due to the unavailability of stock. A  very dear friend of mine is from Delhi and he too had the same share of experience. There is a kirana store in my neighborhood, and I have known the owner since my childhood, that uncle has to take his personal car to APMC every alternate day and have to load the car himself as the labours (Mathadi’s) are not available.

Still this awkward supply chain can deliver basic commodities like wheat, rice, and some pulses. This should be fine if everything returns to normal when lockdown is set to end on April 14. However, there is a good chance of these restrictions to continue and all the citizens will be expected to be at home, causing the shortage of essential commodities and an increase in the inflation rate.

Well, we still trust our government when it says that the essential commodities are in abundance and to be made available to the general public will be their topmost priority, I feel somehow this will be managed and even if the restrictions are imposed for a longer duration then there will be some relaxations for the sake of the situations that will let the supply chain function in a normal way.