UPL’s Response to Covid-19 Pandemic
We are relentlessly fighting against the worldwide emergency caused by the Coronavirus on two fronts: ensuring a stable food chain and continued food supply; and contributing to sanitization, supplies and welfare efforts for the communities. Our people are helping us feed the needy.
Our factories are open to ensure farmers get everything they need, and food continues to reach tables. Innovative ideas like deploying farm sprayers for sanitization of public spaces is making an on-ground difference in this pandemic. We have transformed some of our factories to manufacture hand sanitizers, which are being distributed to health authorities, nurses, local communities and more.
Office employees are working from home until further notice.
All employees are kept updated on the latest developments and kept connected to foster the feeling of being ‘One team. One focus’.
Manufacturing sites are open and the health and safety of our people is a key priority.
Sanitizing showers have been installed at factories.
Temperature checks at arrival are made mandatory.
Hand sanitizers have been installed at regular distances to ensure frequent hand sanitization.
We are collaborating with people, organizations and governments around the world.
Donation of masks, PPEs, hand sanitizers to the police force, local hospitals, pharmacies, health care workers, government offices is underway to help protect these frontline workers.
Our Europe production sites are helping other factories by providing them with extra equipment of personal protective equipment (PPE) for their staff.
Awareness campaigns on Covid-19 are being conducted for communities through posters and announcements in many Asian countries.
We are helping authorities in India undertake sanitization of public spaces by distributing pest control spraying equipment developed in-house.
Deploying farm spraying vehicles as sanitization vehicles.
Vietnam plant was transformed within 24 hours to begin production of hand sanitizers.
Women self-help groups are stitching masks for distribution.
UPL Crisis Management
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has impacted the entire world economy on a great scale. A lockdown was imposed to control the spread of the virus in many countries. As a result, many shops and businesses were forced to shut down for the period. Subsequently, this affected the agriculture and farming industry as well. To combat the rising problems, UPL Crisis Management has come to their rescue.
Smart Farming & Smart Farming Techniques
The farming industry faced a shortage of labourers. The coronavirus pandemic had halted various farming activities and forced them to travel back to their homes. As a result, it created a shortage of workforce in the farming industry. Those who needed peak labour due to seasonal harvest were severely affected.
Farmers’ income loss occurred in many ways. The primary reason was the overstocking of perishable food items that later became spoilt. Apart from this, surplus production, storage issues, and inability to transport supplies were the other reasons.
Generally, farmers rely on various tools and resources to help them in farming activities. However, these became inaccessible when the coronavirus lockdown was imposed. This disrupted the import and export of resources due to border regulations.
The current coronavirus pandemic has brought some complicated changes in the overall consumption behaviour of people. For the most part, people have developed a habit of occasionally eating outside in restaurants, cafes, fast food centres, and pubs.
However, the coronavirus lockdown forced these businesses to close as well. As a result, they were now forced to cook their food at home. This increased the demand for staple food items, ready-to-eat, and packaged food.
In comparison, demand for perishable food items fell as their shelf life was limited. Therefore, farmers were struggling with meeting the changing demands.
Although the demand was high, the coronavirus lockdown had forced labourers and workers to remain in isolation like everybody else. It also raised the risk of infection when workers turned out to be positive while being asymptomatic.
As a result, it created problems in production units, transport, and facilitating supply. Panic buying is another major reason that has contributed to this problem.
UPL- Providing Support During Corona Virus Crisis
There are different ways in which farmers can be helped to continue their livelihood. UPL Crisis Management has helped many local farmers thrive during the coronavirus pandemic.
Some points from the UPL Employee Safety and Care, state workers to wear masks, keep their hands sanitized or wear gloves, and practice social distancing while working. It also educates them to stay in isolation for 2 weeks if they test positive for coronavirus or fall sick.
To curb the increasing demand, farmers can look for new ways to supply the same. They can make use of UPL Sanitization Vehicles to transport food safely by following all the safety measures.
Alternatively, they can look for other methods of transportation by cooperating with government institutions, NGOs, and even other enterprises.
The e-commerce industry has seen a huge growth in this coronavirus lockdown. People are relying on online businesses to deliver products to their homes. Therefore, farmers can do the same and facilitate home deliveries at a price. People will be happy to use these services and farmers can earn some extra money. They can also employ people who have lost their jobs due to COVID and help them as well. Besides, they can partner with public and private enterprises to aid in food storage and create new distribution channels.
Therefore, farmers can get professional help from UPL crisis management to help curb their losses during the coronavirus pandemic. The program provides various solutions for worker safety and offers helpful products like UPL farm sprayers. Moreover, they can learn from the ongoing pandemic and impose changes to be well-prepared in the future.
DISCLAIMER
“UPL and its subsidiaries have made every attempt to ensure accuracy of the information provided on this website. However, this is a global webpage with access to different geographies for wider reach and greater awareness of UPL. In the course of doing the same, UPL has used Weglot translator plugin to cover the language of this website from English to select regional languages.
UPL therefore, does not accept any responsibility or liability on the nature, standard or the accuracy of the translation and cannot take responsibility for any type of inaccurate contextual meaning in the event of a mismatch from English to a regional language.”
