Obert Chifamba Agri-Insight
THE bulk of humanity’s day-to-day activities might have literally come to a screeching halt globally owing to the punishing effects of coronavirus, but the inevitable reality is that there will always be life after the pandemic.

One thing everybody will appreciate is that the Covid-19 pandemic will leave people armed with one or two new survival skills because even if all processes are down, people still need to survive and they will find a way to do that.

Fresh produce farmers doing their business at the country’s various markets will live to tell a story that is both depressing and inspiring.

They first need to appreciate that Government has gone out of its way to lift restrictions on their activities at the markets, but threw the ball into their court to either score or shoot wide. The Covid-19 pandemic has in fact created a window of opportunities that should teach farmers to always have a Plan B in place as far as marketing their produce is concerned.

It is, however, crucial to appreciate that they all had planned big and planted enough hectarages or acreages to allow them to produce adequately for a living.

But when coronavirus broke out, it did not do anything to slash their hectarages or volumes of produce. What it did was to constrict the marketing opportunities by removing buyers from the matrix, leaving farmers in a catch-22 situation, as there was no one to buy their produce, with buyers observing the initial 21-day lockdown and a further 14-day lockdown.

Lessons emerging from what is happening now are that farmers must not always concentrate on disposing of produce by selling it in its fresh state because once that opportunity is removed, they face a disastrous situation in which they will lose all perishables if they do not have refrigerating facilities.

In the end they throw away a lot of money.

They must also learn to harvest small quantities, which can be sold and exhausted in a day and avoid ferrying huge quantities to the market where very few buyers are coming.

Difficult moments like these require farmers to be innovative and instead of watching helplessly as produce wastes away, they can always do some value addition and sell later.

They should harvest quantities they can dispose of in a short space of time and consider drying or even canning some of the produce to sell later, albeit with more value than they would have gotten now.

Dried vegetables or fruits normally fetch higher prices than fresh ones given that they are normally associated with higher nutritional value than the fresh.

The drying process should also be done with a lot of care, especially during a time like this when every surface is a potential transmitter of the deadly coronavirus hence the need for the farmers to exercise strict hygiene during the preservation process. Drying of produce should also be done in a place that does not expose it to dust, so the place has to be cordoned from everything else, but the farmer.

That way the farmer can preserve the value of the produce and when the current problem blows over, there are chances of the farmer selecting markets without hurrying.

The farmer can even approach supermarkets, take-aways or individual buyers with the produce and negotiate viable prices in an environment free from pressure.

It is possible for farmers to do canning and preserve produce such as tomatoes or fruits such as pine apples, apples and many others.

They can also process tomatoes into sauces or even purees, which will naturally fetch more value than fresh ones.

To escape the high costs of purchasing the equipment individually, farmers may combine forces and buy as a group so that when need comes, they can always turn to Plan B for survival.

Difficult times like this usually come with opportunities that change the economic or social landscapes of many people. Businesspeople, like farmers, can also tap into such opportunities through being innovative. They can even start brands they will survive on long after coronavirus is gone. They just need to have the courage to venture out of their comfort zone and explore the pristine marketing world that is out there waiting for explorers. They will also need to observe the health regulations spelt out in the measures currently in place to contain Covid-19 and observe social distancing even as they work in the fields harvesting or maintaining the crops.

The farmers need to make sure even the implements they use, which they usually share through lending or borrowing, are also washed using clean water and soap so that they do not spread the virus.

After the day’s toil they can also still afford to relax at home and avoid gathering with colleagues to discuss the next market date in crowded environments.

They can always communicate via phones, which essentially eliminates chances of them getting into contact or sharing the same air space.

Farmers, like all citizens will also need to exercise self-hygiene after spending the day in the field tending to their crops.

Government’s decision to allow the farmers to start trading again did not kill or lessen the virus, but was only done to save farmers from incurring heavy losses that could even drive them out of business forever so they need to observe all health regulations religiously.

There are a lot of chances of farmers bringing the virus home from the market so they should be very careful as they go about their business at the markets.

And should a family member or fellow farmer fall ill, they should also be able to place that person in isolation before inviting a doctor and not give in to the ailing colleague’s whims to be doing a bit of work so that they are able to cover more ground towards completing tasks at hand.

Yes, farmers work with deadlines, but they still need to guard their health jealously lest they will never be able to meet those deadlines once they are dead.