With operations coming to a halt, when the lockdown was declared in March 2020, Syngenta reached out to all government stakeholders at the Center to ensure that the farming activity was not impacted and farmers were assisted in selling their farm produce in the market. Discussions and interactions with stakeholders aided Syngenta to understand the need to support the farming community and immediately initiated different activities to support the needy.
An initiative greatly appreciated, was food distribution that was organized for farmers who had to work long hours to sell their harvest at the mandis. This was significant during the lockdown and Syngenta served food packets to 300000 farmers in over 100 mandis across 11 states during this period. In addition, grocery support was extended to 15000 families that were enough to last a month.
To aid farmers during this period, Syngenta India was quick to respond and set up 16 toll-free numbers in 9 languages across 13 states to answer all their queries about their crops, market linkages, and Covid precautions to be taken.
In collaboration with Syngenta Foundation, Syngenta additionally deployed around 1900 Agri entrepreneurs to support 300000 farmers with agronomy advice. Additionally, assisting farmers in sorting, grading as well as market linkages for agriculture produce such as maize, wheat, mustard, onion, garlic, vegetables, fruits, etc. We supported 5570 farmers to bring 2473 metric tons of produce to the markets in Maharashtra, Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan.
In the effort to ensure the safety of the citizens, we provided 200000 masks to front line workers, 2700 PPE Kits and 2000 disposable bed kits to Government Hospitals, 1000 liters of sanitizers to the frontline personnel like police, health workers, and municipal authorities. Additionally, we supported government authorities to sanitize 100 villages in Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh.
This intervention was accomplished through collaboration with organizations such as Akshaya Patra, Indian Society of Agribusiness Professionals, Kaushalya Foundation, NGO Effort, Sarvodaya Integrated Development Society, Jan Jagruti Pratisthan for implementation support.
The above activities were supported by three Syngenta India entities i.e., Syngenta India Limited, Syngenta Services Pvt. Ltd., and Syngenta Biosciences Pvt. Ltd. Syngenta Commercial Teams, R&D and Production Sites and Seed Production teams ensured the implementation of the program on the ground.
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