Could coronavirus drive farmers to adopt sustainable practices in India’s breadbasket?
- From
-
Published on
07.07.20
- Impact Area
-
Funders
Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, Gates Foundation, United States of America

June marks the start of the rice growing season in India’s breadbasket but on the quiet fields of Haryana and Punjab you wouldn’t know it.
Usually the northwestern Indian states are teeming with migrant laborers working to transplant rice paddies. However, the government’s swift COVID-19 lockdown measures in late March triggered reverse migration, with an estimated 1 million laborers returning to their home states.
The lack of migrant workers has raised alarms for the labor-dependent rice-wheat farms that feed the nation. Healthy harvests are driven by timely transplanting of rice and, consequently, by the timely sowing of the succeeding wheat crop in rotation.
Related news
-
ILRI-CGIAR poultry research facility: A research and development hub open to the global scientific community
International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)31.07.25-
Food security
In a world facing mounting food security challenges, poultry research is becoming increasingly impor…
Read more -
-
Nematode - resistant potatoes, a boost for food security in Kenya
Sehlule Muzata31.07.25-
Climate adaptation & mitigation
-
Food security
-
Nutrition, health & food security
Underneath Kenya’s potato fields, a silent killer is at work. Microscopic worms - potato cyst…
Read more -
-
Niger State Partners with AfricaRice for Transformative Rice Production Growth: Targeting 10 Million Tons by 2030
AfricaRice28.07.25-
Food security
-
Nutrition, health & food security
-
Poverty reduction, livelihoods & jobs
July 22, 2025, Mbé, Côte d'Ivoire – In a landmark visit that signals a new era…
Read more -