(Yicai Global) April 8 -- To safeguard local agriculture, China’s main northeastern crop-growing province of Jilin is making green channels available for farmers and the transport of produce amid the restrictions put in place to battle the Covid-19 outbreak in the country.

According to the new policy, the provincial government will provide transport to help migrant workers travel from the provincial capital of Changchun back to rural areas.

Wang Changji, a farmer who has been working part-time at an auto parts market in Changchun, told Yicai Global that he has applies to return to his hometown. Wang said the spring planting of corn can be done as normal if the new policy works well.

“The epidemic prevention and control measures are only severe in the cities,” said a Jilin official. “Farmers and their spring planting should not be affected.”

Farmers who are unable to travel back because of the resurgence of Covid-19 will be given help so that their farm work can still be done, the Jilin and Changchun authorities have announced.

A specific license has been issued for the transport of produce, according to Zhang Lidong, an employee at local agricultural resources company Fuxing Nongzi. It allows drivers to deliver supplies to people’s homes without getting out of their trucks.

Farmers are also facing pressure from the soaring prices of agricultural materials. Zhou Liao, who works in large-scale crop growing, told Yicai Global that the price of urea fertilizer has jumped 50 percent from the same period last year and prices of potassic fertilizers have doubled.

The cost of diesel oil also has reached a record high, and the prices of plastic film to protect crop seeds has risen over 50 percent from a year earlier, Zhou said.

Local governments should strive to coordinate the buying of chemical fertilizers and free up transport to prevent anti-pandemic measures having an impact on spring plowing and produce sales, according to Gu Jian, a researcher at Bric Consultant.

Bi Hui, senior analyst at Baocheng Futures, said that the real problem for farmers is the sharp hike in prices of agricultural materials, rather than the impact of measures to control Covid-19. Farmers could use insurance and future contracts to maintain their basic income and hedge against the risk of unstable prices, he suggested.

Yesterday, Jilin reported 617 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 1,649 asymptomatic patients.

Editor: Tom Litting