SENSEX
NIFTY 50
Hang Seng
Taiwan Weighted
MCX GOLD OCT 05
MCX SILVER DEC 04
USD/INR
EUR/INR80.0630

SENSEX
NIFTY 50
NIFTY MIDCAP 100
S&P BSE MIDCAP
Hang Seng
Taiwan Weighted
DAX
Nasdaq
MCX GOLD OCT 05
MCX SILVER DEC 04
MCX CRUDEOIL OCT 19
MCX NATURALGAS SEP 25
USD/INR
EUR/INR
GBP/INR
JPY/INR

Stock Market Highlights: Market ends in the red for 4th day

Asian stocks fall on concerns about fresh lockdowns, banking sector

Oil refiners worldwide struggle with weak demand, inventory glut

Euro catched eye after ECB meet; pound shows resilience, dollar struggle continues

Agriculture

Sufficient food stock but supply chain efficiency needs to be ramped up quickly, says National Collateral Management

Updated : March 26, 2020 01:06 PM IST

It is day two of nationwide lockdown in India and various authorities have faced different challenges.

Discussing the impact of lockdown on supply chains and prices of food articles and vegetables, Siraj Chaudhry, MD and CEO of National Collateral Management Service said, “We are in a fortunate situation as a country to have sufficient food stocks with us. The challenge is that in the current environment, there is so much restriction on movement, so how do we move these food stocks to the people who need them."

"We are also expecting a very large rabi harvest and the farmers would be itching to get that crop to the market, which he is currently unable to do given the situation. The stocks, which are already with the government will help them tide over the current problem,” he said.

Talking about what the farmers will do, he added, “This is causing a delay in the procurement, delay in farmers bringing the material to the market which is okay for a certain number of days – two-three weeks – but the smaller and medium farmers will be facing a huge cash crunch, which would obviously get them restless. So, there is a need to provide them the money to go on for the time they are not able to bring their crops to the market. The storage available will be less because if the crop comes in late, it will stay longer and that will hit the kharip crop. So there could be a potential storage crunch in the country.”

“Although I am hopeful with all the efforts that the government is making, these supply chain hiccups will be taken care of, we need to understand that it is not just about moving produce from one place to the other, there are a whole lot of other services involved, which is loading, packing, unloading. There has to be greater clarity on defining essential services. It is a challenge to get the employees to get to work but if they are harassed then their enthusiasm to do that is even lower,” said Chaudhry.

“Once we take care of the supply chain, then there is enough material everywhere to tide over this crisis to without letting the prices go up. The supply chain efficiency has to step in very quickly if we have to eliminate this because there is no supply shortage,” he further mentioned.

You May Also Like

Stock Market Highlights: Market ends in red for 4th day, broader markets slip over 1%; all sectors end lower except IT index

Stock Market Highlights: Market ends in red for 4th day, broader markets slip over 1%; all sectors end lower except IT index

Coronavirus News LIVE Updates: India records over 1 lakh single-day recoveries for first time, fresh cases dip below 76,000

Coronavirus News LIVE Updates: India records over 1 lakh single-day recoveries for first time, fresh cases dip below 76,000

TVS Motor launches new variant of Apache RTR 200 4V at Rs 1.23 lakh

TVS Motor launches new variant of Apache RTR 200 4V at Rs 1.23 lakh

Trending on CNBC-TV18

Live TV

recommended for you