Food security and healthcare are top priorities in the pandemic struck world say panelists at Bengal Chamber's online meeting
Kolkata/IBNS: A global recovery is essential now in the light of the havoc being wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic on people's lives and business, said Deb A Mukherjee, President Designate, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce.
He was speaking at the online panel discussion -- Learning from Essentials -- organised by The Bengal Chamber to focus on the issues that have arisen from the pandemic crisis and to find ways to cope with the new normal environment.
Said Mukherjee, who chaired the session, “In the global geo politics, we must have a wider recovery plan for the world. A global resilience alliance is necessary so that in future such incidents can be dealt firmly. This global partnership is necessary. Let us hope that world leaders will take it in the right spirit.”
The objective of the discussion was to learn from the essential industries about the best practices of their operations taking care of the health aspects given the current situation due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, according to the The Bengal Chamber.
Jayanta Chakraborty, Senior General Manager, Indofil Industries Limited, Co-Chairperson, Agriculture & Rural Development, The Bengal Chamber said, “While there has been instances of many rural produce being sold to local people in want of better transport to cities, movement of perishable agriculture produce like vegetable , betel vine , flower etc have been allowed to be transported from rural to urban zones under lock down. It is duly notified by Government of West Bengal that the local administration could be approached in case of any disruption. In addition to that Sufal Bangla in collaboration with many FPOs and FPCs are also arranging agriculture produce to Kolkata city and other such urban town."
He aso pointed out that crops have to be sowed and harvested in their unique specific times, farmers have to out in the agricultural fields.
Resources in agri sector are facing challenges that include man power, machinery, seeds, nutrition, and finance.
He also said that transporting of fertilizer for upcoming kharif season is proving difficult with restrictions under COVID effect.
Due to lock down raw materials for pesticides procured from China has been stopped.
Mechanization in agri sector is the way forward along with digital application that will change the marketing of agricultural produce to e-mandi platforms, said Chakraborty.
"The agriculture sector cannot wait unlike other sectors as it deals with perishable items that are needed for human life sustenance. With shut down of jute mills there is shortage for production of bags that is used for storage and transporting of agri produce. Total revamping of logistics and production of seed hubs across the state and warehousing will play a major role in coming days. Lastly producing quality plant protection chemicals in India should be the focus and need to change the perspective about farmers is the need of the hour," said Chakraborty.
Prof. Dr. Rabin Chakraborty, Chairperson. Health Committee, The Bengal Chamber, said, “Following COVID -19 phase, the two most important societal worry is adequate food and good health care. The need of the hour is to address the COVID menace and make people educated and aware of the dos and don’ts to follow as they pick up on life after COVID effect by adopting hygiene and care that is for the larger interest of society. General work force in various sectors should practice the use of mask, gloves and maintain comfortable social distancing that will improve consciousness and prevent infection including those working in farm lands. Farmer insurance is a must and community advocacy on safer living and practices are a must to contain COVID. Tele medicine and online consultation by doctors can play a big role for farms based in remote areas.”
Other speakers present were Deb Kumar Basu, Director, Zetadel Technologies Pvt. Ltd. and Chairperson, Manufacturing and MSME Committee, The Bengal Chamber; Arnab Basu , Managing Partner-East, Consulting Leader, PricewaterhouseCoopers Pvt. Ltd. and IT Committee, The Bengal Chamber; Gautam Ray. Executive Director (HR & Admin) , CESC Limited and Chairperson. Energy and Environment Committee; P.K. Guha, MD & CEO, Zuventus Healthcare and Kozi Suzuki, MD, Rohto Pharma (India) Pvt. Ltd.
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