In India, COVID-19 hit just as our farmers were ready to harvest. Harvesting is a time-sensitive process in which farmers collect, sell and transport crops within a short timeframe. But lockdowns meant our farmers couldn’t hire the usual seasonal workers, leaving families to harvest alone. For an added layer of complexity, closed communities and industries meant farmers were unable to sell or trade their crop, while a lack of on-site storage and concerns like insect infestation and off-balanced moisture levels threatened the quality of the crops.
With help from our agronomists, farmers in India conducted a safe harvest of their crops earlier this year
Our India SmartBarley team, a proud part of Budweiser APAC quickly mobilized to provide storage solutions, safety equipment, and to reassure our smallholder farmer partners that we would uphold our promise to purchase their harvest, no matter what. The team kept constant contact with farmers through calls, SMS and videos, advising on harvesting and storage, as well as providing updates on government COVID-19 guidelines. Once markets re-opened, agronomists supported farmers who were still unable to bring their crops to aggregation points by bringing cleaning and quality testing equipment directly to the farm to ease the selling process. Despite the pandemic, India recorded higher-than-anticipated barley volumes, resulting in a successful harvest season for everyone.
“When we were not able to initially sell the crops due to the lockdown, the SmartBarley India team, a proud part of Budweiser APAC regularly assured us that they would still purchase the crops, which gave us confidence and hope,” said Lalchand Lumawat, a barley farmer in Lakhani, District Sikar. “They also provided masks and sanitizers to ensure our safety.”
We’re proud of how we are quickly and successfully supporting our smallholder growing partners through the COVID-19 pandemic, but we’re not stopping there. We are building upon our learnings from India and other countries to better prepare future farmer support activities in other geographies and to ensure that we are strengthening the resilience of our smallholder supply chains, not just against the pandemic but any supply chain shocks.
With our partners and our incredible network of smallholder farmers around the world, we know we can collaborate to build future strategies that better prepare us for global and local crises. Meanwhile, we are proactively creating a better, more sustainable world, where we continue to grow the highest quality ingredients and brew great beer for many years to come.
