Govt recommends standard operating procedure for farm operations

NEW DELHI: The government has recommended standard operating procedure (SOP) for farm operations to avert threat of Covid-19. Agriculture commissioner S K Malhotra, on Thursday, urged farmers to maintain social distancing, personal hygiene and use machineries to minimise labour requirement.

“Land preparation should be done by tractor driven machineries, which needs minimum labour. Farmers should use seed cum fertilizer drills, which involve involve less workers,” he said during the national kharif conference held through video conference for planning the upcoming kharif crop season.

He said that proper social distancing and sanitisation should be followed while sowing and fertiliser application. They should take bath after day’s work and wash clothes with soap and sun dry.


“Farmers should sanitise seed drill, plough, tractor before use and workers should wear face masks or cover face with three layers of chunnis, gamchha or towel maintaining a distance of at least 1-2 metre during farm operations,” he said.

He said that workers should have separate utensils which should be cleaned with soap after use.

For transplanting of rice and vegetables, which is highly labour intensive, farmers should wash hands, legs and with soap when coming out of field for meal and rest.

“While weeding and spraying of pesticides also, farmers should follow the SOP. All equipments should be sanitised and empty packets of pesticides should be burnt or buried in soil. Bags of seeds and fertiliser, however, may be reused after sun drying them,” he said.