Farm growth not to be impacted much this fiscal due to COVID-19 lockdown: Agri Min Narendra Singh Tomar

The impact of lockdown on the overall agriculture GDP will not be much this year on hopes of good rains. And the government has exempted farm activities from the lockdown rules, Tomar said.

PTI

April 29, 2020 / 06:48 PM IST

The country's farm sector is functioning smoothly despite COVID-19 lockdown and there will not be much impact on its growth in the current fiscal unlike other sectors, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said on Wednesday. Agriculture and allied sector's growth stood at 3.7 percent during the 2019-20 fiscal.

Meanwhile, government think tank Niti Aayog pegged the farm sector growth at 3 percent in the current fiscal in hopes of a good monsoon amid prevailing COVID-19 situation.

Addressing the media, Tomar said: "In the current lockdown situation, the agriculture sector is functioning smoothly as there has been no shortage of foodgrains, vegetables and dairy products. But, many other sectors are impacted. We are proud of our farmers. We thank our farmers".

The impact of lockdown on the overall agriculture GDP will not be much this year on hopes of good rains. And the government has exempted farm activities from the lockdown rules, he said.

"Agriculture GDP was at 3.7 percent during last year. I am confident that this growth in future will not be impacted much," Tomar added.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

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There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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