Covid-19 has posed a challenge to the basic functioning of
the economy, the agriculture supply chain ecosystem as a whole.
It has brought out the underlying factors that have been
ignored for years.
The inefficiencies that were existing in the unorganized
agriculture sector.
It has raised a major concern of whether we are prepared
enough to handle these unforeseen situations in the future.
The sudden announcement of the lockdown in March, although
everyone saw it coming, did push the whole system to a standstill.
The fear of
non-movement of essential commodities across the nation in such times
threatened the nation with a possibility of chaos and confusion.
In a nation with such
a huge population, this was something that needed to be addressed first-hand.
Thankfully, the government came back with a set of
guidelines allowing the movement of essential services throughout the country.
It wasn’t as easy as everyone imagined. The confusion about
what was essential and what wasn’t put in a lot of hurdles in the smooth
functioning.
Then came the fear that started creeping in everyone’s mind
regarding their safety and health.
Truck drivers being the only bread earner in the family and
the most important element of the supply chain refused to go to states that
were acknowledged as highly affected. The shortage of labor
caused unnecessary delay in loading and unloading of loads,
again resulting in drivers being stuck in areas away from
their home left to the mercy of the situation.
End of March and start of April were the most uncertain and
unknown times for everyone.
No one knew when
things would be normal again. Everyone had their own theories and perceptions
about the worldwide epidemic.
AgriGator team did not stop for even a second. None of us
lost our cool. We immediately sat down and brainstormed all the possible
ways that could work in these times, helping everyone
associated with us in the best possible way. We utilized the shutdown time to
revamp our trust and relation with traders and local mill
owners, explained the minute details of the guidelines to our partners helping
they restart their
functioning, motivated the truck drivers making them realize they are the real
heroes of these times.
Out of the roughly 60
Lakh open trucks involved in agriculture logistics, only 3-4 lakh trucks were
operational.
We picked up every
minute effort we could put and push as far as we could.
By mid-May, we had already shipped more than 4000 MT of
grains in various geographies,
got the drivers 125% of the pre-COVIDw prices to accommodate
the empty truck returns.
AgriGator team is
proud to do its bit to serve its fellow countrymen and maintain the smooth
movement of essentials across geographies.
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