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Obert Chifamba Agri-Insight

There has been a flurry of warnings from the Government of late to organisations and individuals against adopting a nonchalant attitude in the manner they observe regulations on minimising the spread of the novel coronavirus of 2019 (Covid-19).

In fact, a lot has been and is happening in various sectors of the economy as citizens try to make ends meet in the face of the debilitating Covid-19 that has infected millions of people globally and claimed more than a million lives too.

Yes, Government rightfully relaxed some of the conditions to allow the economy to remain functional, but it seems some citizens have mistaken that move for a total lifting of the restrictions and appear to have thrown caution to the wind.

What the citizenry seems to be forgetting is that the current comfort zone into which they have drifted can easily turn into a danger zone overnight, triggering an explosion of fresh cases and even deaths in worst case scenarios, which calls for everybody to act responsibly.

In this universal battle to survive, the country’s farming communities have not fared any better, with farmers too adopting the same relaxed manner as the majority of the people.

This spells the need to pull all stops and once again start observing Covid-19 restrictions even more religiously than what used to happen when the lockdown was introduced at the beginning of the year.

It is a fact that agriculture was declared an essential service, hence farmers cannot avoid doing activities that require people to meet and somehow interact, for instance, those that produce products that are needed on a daily basis must make sure they get to consumers.

There are those farmers who produce commodities like chickens, vegetables, fruits and other perishables, for example, that require to be marketed each time they are ready for harvesting and ultimately, consumption.

Such farmers must not lose their guard and make sure they observe all regulations such as social distancing, wearing of masks and sanitising implements they use, sheds they sell produce from and also request the customers that come to buy the produce to observe all the regulations during and after the transactions.

Farmers need to take produce to the markets daily with most of them traditionally accompanying their produce on board the vehicles ferrying it.

These farmers need to adopt to the prevailing new normal and where possible limit the numbers of people accompanying the produce or let others find alternative transport so that there is no overcrowding in the trucks that ferry produce.

It is no rocket science that authorities at the markets sometimes get overwhelmed by the numbers of farmers and customers seeking to get into the markets to do business, but this should not be an excuse for farmers to also throw caution to the wind and abandon the regulations.

They just need to make sure they have their face masks on, sanitise or wash their hands as they start and finish business.

Some farmers do not take produce to the markets, but have customers coming to their farms to purchase their products, which makes it imperative for them to enforce the regulations as they do their business on their premises.

They should tap into the advantage of being at home to religiously follow set regulations bearing in mind that some of their customers come from faraway places where they would have mingled with many people, hence the need to take the necessary preventive precautions.

On the one and, all those people visiting the farms should go through one entry point where they will be registered in case there may be need for contact tracing should cases or a case of Covid-19 be detected.

Farmers, like any other responsible citizens should be in the habit of keeping records of who comes to their farms and when so that it will be easier to combat further spreading of the virus and trace contacts in the event of an outbreak.

Where possible, visitors should be requested to produce certificates to prove that they have been tested where they come from.

It is common sense that taking chances at a time like this is not only suicidal, but puts lives of innocent people at risk when that could have been avoided.

Farmers producing specialised products have in recent times adopted the habit of requesting visitors to go through a foot bath and sanitise their hands as a way of protecting their produce from possibly contracting diseases that might be clinging to the visitors’ clothes or other belongings.

One other scenario that calls for farmers to be careful is when they hire extra hands to have certain jobs done.

They should ensure that they hire moderate numbers of casual helpers that they can easily monitor in terms of compliance with Covid-19 regulations while it may also be necessary for them to use compliance as one of the factors determining the engagement of casual labour.

Essentially, this should make it easy for such farmers to extend the practice to the fight against Covid-19.

It is also necessary to adopt a “no mask, no service” approach to business so that customers can take the farmers seriously and toe the line too.

Vehicles that come to the farms should sterilised, as they can also be vectors that can transmit the virus, while implements that are usually used communally need to be cleaned each time they are used or lent to neighbours needing them.

At this time of the year when Government is distributing inputs under its various programmes, it is also important for farmers and those distributing the inputs to observe all the regulations set by Government and WHO to minimise the spread of coronavirus.

In most cases, social distancing is virtually absent, as farmers exchange pleasantries waiting for their turns to receive their packages while shaking of hands and sometimes hugging is done generously.

To avoid such situations, those giving out inputs need to make it very clear that they will only serve people observing Covid-19 regulations while those that flout them will return to their homes empty-handed.

In such a case they will need to enlist the services of the police so that potentially errant individuals will save their stubbornness for another day.