Effect of Covid 19 on agriculture in India
By: Pranjali Kohad
Tags: Agriculture In India, Agriculture, Farmers, Covid 19 Crisis, Pandemic

Photo by ricke 76 on Unsplash

Covid 19 is a groundbreaking challenge for India, its large population and economy are a huge part of agriculture. The informal labors and migrating farmer makes lockdown and other social distancing measures hugely disruptive. 70 percent of its rural households still depend primarily on agriculture for their livelihood, with 82 percent of farmers being small and marginal.

Smallholder farmers are a crucial part of the food chain in India, as well as a critical element of the global food system. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought new risks that threaten livelihoods as well as food security.

Supply chain during a pandemic

COVID-19 is disrupting some activities in agriculture and supply chains. Nevertheless, Indian agriculture is the only sector to register positive growth of 3.4% during the financial year (FY) 2020–21 even as the overall economic growth declined by -7.2% during the same period. Some reports show the non-availability of migrant labor is interrupting agriculture activities. On the other hand, there are disruptions in supply chains because of transportation problems and other issues. Prices have declined for wheat, vegetables, and other crops.

A survey noted that disruption in the supply chain impacted the flow of agricultural goods, leading to high food inflation and adverse impact on some major exports. Consumers changed their behavior patterns by reducing consumption of non-essentials, reduced market visits, and commenced stockings. Survey results indicated that three-fourths of the consumers reported a price rise in food commodities during the lockdown.

Points to be considered:-

• In circumstances of pandemic long food supply chains involving multiple stakeholders and entities are vulnerable.

• For future resilience, mapping and optimizing supply chains will be key support.

• Smallholder farmers are highly vulnerable to crisis due to their limited access to resources, credit, and basic healthcare facilities. Measures will need to be taken by governments and businesses to protect the community.

• Any disruption in food availability affect health through a reduction in diet diversity and nutritional intake, which can further increase people's susceptibility to infection.

The pressure of pandemic on Indian Farmers

Every year, Indian farmers face risks such as low rainfall, price volatility, and rising debts. But risks from the COVID-19 pandemic are putting new challenges in front of a sector that is already under threat. Social distancing and isolation are huge challenges for farming communities who rely on daily labor and wages for their subsistence. Preventive measures such as regular handwashing, social distancing, and self-isolation pose a unique challenge for rural communities. Earlier, a farm laborer would get anywhere between Rs. 300-700 for a day’s work, but this has now come down by at least 40%, thus bringing the daily wages down, said the reports.

Experts believe farmers in India have felt the pressure of the ongoing pandemic as they have been burdened with creating more jobs for returning migrants who have lost employment due to COVID-19 and at the same time are being forced to sell their produce at lower rates. Making the food grains, fruits and vegetables, and other essential items available to consumers, both in rural and urban areas is also challenging.

Lockdown induced farmers debt

Photo by Gyan Shahane on Unsplash

The crucial issue that farmers have to surmount is the problem of repaying their crop loans, gold loans, and other informal debts. Crop loans are repaid between April and May and a new loan is granted at the onset of a new season. Failure to do so due to any reason will mean that they will be forced to borrow money from the informal sector at high rates of interest for the new season. Border closures, quarantines, and market, supply chain, and trade disruptions are restricting people’s access to sufficient nutritious sources of food. Such conditions will hurt farmers and the agricultural sector.

Future strategy to strengthen the agriculture

•Risk management

COVID-19 had a less or negligible effect on food prices (except for vegetables). However, food prices are showing high volatility which translates into price risk to farmers. The Government should consider setting up a price stabilization fund to insulate farmers from the price risk.

• Family farming

In strategizing to strengthen the agricultural sector, we must pay attention to the concept of sustainability. Family farmers not only produce food but they save biodiversity, produce nutritious and local foods, develop new strategies and develop innovations to tackle social, economic, and environmental challenges.

•Collective farming

Crop farmers should heed the successful cases like dairy cooperatives to increase productivity and profits. Unlike cereals, pulses, and vegetables, milk prices were not affected by the lockdown.

Crop farmers should come together either as cooperatives or farmer producer organizations or farmer producer companies and work in the network of the international food system. These steps together will have the potential to overcome the challenges of production and marketing risks of the farmers.

• Reforms in agricultural finance

Access to cheap loans has to be enabled, especially for small and marginal landholders to revive the sector. Restructuring agricultural loans and repayment schedules.

• Stakeholder partnerships

Stakeholder partnerships help to bridge the information and knowledge gaps by creating awareness, including social media platforms. Sanitize market yards in addition to social distancing which is essential for the smooth functioning of the markets during the COVID-19 crisis.

Conclusions

The COVID-19 pandemic has evolved into a global challenge. Initial investigation in India shows that restriction on movement, transportation problems, and reverse labor migration have disrupted domestic supply chains which ultimately contributed to rises in wholesale and retail prices of a few commodities like pulses, wheat flour, milk, and vegetables.

As a result of the lockdown, tens of thousands of people left the major cities because of unemployment and returned to their rural villages to avoid the pressures of maintaining a family in cities with high living costs. They have returned to their villages unemployed, in some places to compete for local jobs with other would-be migrant workers who have been unable to travel to seek employment in other communities that are now suffering from a shortage of laborers. The end of the lockdown will not end the problems. There is a greater need for government support for other agricultural inputs.