Since the outbreak of the coronavirus in the Wuhan District of China in late December, the highly contagious coronavirus has killed more than 6,500 and infected over a hundred and seventy thousand worldwide.
The pandemic has rapidly spread across the globe through human contact, resulting in drastic measures including self-isolation and reduction in human contact, to mitigate the spread of the deadly virus.
In most European countries restaurants have been ordered closed down by the authorities and travel bans and restrictions put in place, targeting all but citizens of the country from entry. This, in turn, has put pressure on farm migrant labour.
Increased Demand of Drones In China
Large farms, local governments, and agricultural product distributors in China are reportedly buying high-tech equipment as the spread of the coronavirus puts an impetus on reducing human contact.
So while the coronavirus outbreak in China has hit many industries hard, some technology start-ups in agriculture are seeing demand rise.
“In the first two months of 2020, we delivered 4,000 units of our newly released agricultural drones,” Justin Gong, co-founder of XAG, a major agricultural drone maker based in the southern city of Guangzhou, said in Mandarin, according to a CNBC translation.
XAG is not alone. In the north, Beijing Yifei Technology’s Chief Marketing Officer Liu Zhuo said he expects the company’s revenue to at least quadruple this year to over 30 million yuan ($4.31 million).
“Recently, we received increased inquiries about agricultural drones and unmanned vehicles,” Liu said, according to a CNBC translation of his Mandarin-language remarks.
Dairy Co-operatives In Ireland
A leading farm representative organisation the ICSA has warned that the impact of restrictions arising out of attempts to curb the spread of coronavirus will have a severe impact of the Irish farming community, with ICSA president Edmond Phelan saying the body will “fully implement” decisions regarding reducing the size and scale of public meetings.
“ICSA sees the health of all citizens as being the primary concern and we are obviously worried about the potential for coronavirus infections among our members. The farming population has an older demographic and we are acutely aware that the virus poses a bigger threat to older people and people with underlying health conditions.” Strict protocols are being enacted by dairy co-ops to ensure that milk collection and milk processing will continue as normal while ensuring that social distancing takes place throughout the collection process.
This typically entails the dairy farmer opening the dairy facilities for the milk collection vehicle and maintaining an appropriate distance from the driver until they depart.
The ICOS on its part is worried that workers may, unfortunately, be affected by illness, requiring them not to work, and many will also have additional child care responsibilities. This could also require groups of workers to self-isolate, calling for flexibility in working arrangements to protect employment and also to ensure that milk will not have to be discarded.
Canada Vows Resilience
Canada’s National Farmers Union (NFU) President Katie Ward talked about one of the major impacts of the virus.
“A big concern is going to be the Temporary Foreign Workers Program, and what impact health screening or isolation measures are going to have on that program,” she said. “We’ve started investigating that ourselves in the National Farmers Union and we’re hoping to have advice for our members coming up shortly.”
Agric economists noted that the pandemic will affect the markets in ways that are difficult to foresee, as the news is changing every minute and regulators are making bold, unpredictable and immediate moves.
Stressing that machinery and land are ultimately vulnerable to what people are able and/or willing to spend.
