A large amount of farm products are being wasted everyday in Corona crisis. What else can be done?

Maryam Parvaz

In a report published in 2016, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that about 815 million people of the 7.6 billion people in the world, or one in ten, are suffering from chronic undernourishment. In this report the number of children under 5 who are suffering from chronic hunger is estimated to be 105 million. Out of this number 45 million people are living in hunger in the U.S and Canada and near 30 million in Europe. In another report it is mentioned that with 200 million people deprived of food, India is home to the largest  number of hungry people in the world. 

There is no doubt that Corona pandemic makes the situation more difficult for people suffering from starvation. Amid this, every day we are reading in the news that farmers, deprived of customers, are forced to dump their products.

Wall street journal wrote on April 26: As the coronavirus pandemic disrupts supply chains, American farmers are dumping milk, throwing out eggs and plowing under healthy crops. Produce suppliers are especially vulnerable to surpluses because fruits and vegetables are perishable and can’t be stored.

In a similar post BBC wrote on April 29:  Some dairy farmers are having to throw away thousands of litres of fresh milk due to disruption to the supply chain caused by coronavirus. There is concern that some dairy farms may go out of a business, which could result in a milk shortage when demand returns after the pandemic.

Dairy farmer Robert Mallett, based in Wiltshire, western England, recently tweeted about dumping “17,000 litres down the drain”, while Winterdale Cheesemakers, based in the southeast of the country, showed a video of discarded milk flowing rapidly from a pipe.

In a long report New Indian Express wrote on Apr 12, about the economic loss that farmers suffer from in different regions of India. This report estimated huge losses expanding from 20% to 70% to the farmers and laborers active in farming.

In Iran, after a video of dumping chickens went viral in social media, animal supporters started to put pressure on the policymakers. Shortly after that higher court judge and some clerics announced that dumping chickens or other animals just because there is no customer is forbidden by Law and Islamic Fiqh. Yet, no human supporters are there to start doing something with the wasted food. Distribute them to people who are drown in deep poverty in these difficult times.

In such times people tend to think that government should support the producers, laborers and customers who are suffering from economic shock. Yet, it seems that the governments find it very difficult to think some measures finding a solution. Buying corps from the farmers in a cheaper price and distributing them to the people suffering from hunger, or even selling them for a cheaper price in shops to help people, who are deprived of their revenues, to survive during this crisis. If it is not what a government should do, one might ask why such things as governments are there at all.

In the middle of all these, Anurag, the owner of Prabha Dairy Farm in Giridih, Jaharkhand is distributing his farm products every day to the village dwellers near his farm, with the help of family members and friends. Anurag says: At first it was very difficult to sort out some other ways instead of wasting the products. But if the producers take this challenge and start to gather people who want to help and cooperate with them, it will turn to a rather easy daily routine.