How is the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the rural farming communities in different regions/countries. You could share your experiences, suggestions, ideas, opinions etc. which may be useful for understanding the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on marginal, small and medium farming communities.
Today, everyone is talking about the impact of COVID-19, but only from a national perspective or urban-centric perspective. Unfortunately, not much has been spoken about the impact of COVID-19 on the rural sector, which constitutes a large part of the economy and overall consumption across product categories in the country.
The first visible impact of COVID-19 in the rural sector is on the agricultural supply chain. While the government has issued permits to trucks allowing them to carry groceries, fruits, and cereals, a large number of transporters are yet to receive their permits. This has increased the time taken for the farm produce to reach the market.
The second impact of COVID-19 is the delay in sowing and harvesting of crops due to the unavailability of products such as seeds, tractors, ancillary support, medicines for crop protection. Traditionally, this is the best time for brands from the above-mentioned sectors to market their products to the farmers.
The third impact of COVID-19 is the expected job cuts in the agricultural sector.
The fourth big impact is the complete shutdown of exports.
It is nearly impossible to even put a ballpark figure to the kind of financial hit rural areas would take due to the COVID-19.
In Italy, rural communities have been less interested than cities, perhaps due to the greater possibility of social distance. However, there are very interested rural areas and regions with many small villages with many cases such as Valle d'Aosta (in the North East on the border with France and Switzerland) and Trentino in the North West (not far from the border with Austria ). It is true that these communities deserve specific attention also because there is a density of elderly people greater than the city, sometimes a greater distance from the supply of some goods and therefore also the needs are different. In my region there is one of five, and largest area in the world, with strong density of centenarians (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Zone)
Fortunately, there has not even been a positive case of Covid in this area until today. I don't know if this was due to luck, isolation, genetics, diet or the fact that in that area people are active and go to the countryside for over a hundred years.
According to my point of view, CoviD-19 have a positive impact on rural darling. In fact, which the governement mesure to fight about, many person have Travel in the direction of their village; then the best activities in vilagge was farming. In this context power man for agriculture increase and them impact of CoviD-19 become positive (case of Cameroon)
I do not know about other countries, but in India, we are now going through the world's largest lockdown. Agriculture was always gambling here, lack of advanced and early detection technology, poor communication with the farmers always lead a huge loss to the farmers in any disaster. This time when the whole country is under the lockdown farmers is not getting proper agri-inputs and advice. So I think it will hamper the production, later coming to the storage farmers are not going for storage nowadays. We don't have that much capacity so farmers mostly do the distress sell. So this pandemic will make this situation worse.
In the north-eastern cusp of the South African Karoo, farming activity includes wool, mohair and mutton production, with the related stud sector in the main, while a bit of beef, pork, game and lucerne production is also pursued. The lockdown imposed by the Government is probably the fourth obstacle local farmers have had to face in the last two years. The first was an attempt by an animal rights organisation which used a dubious method to erroneously bring discredit on local pastoral practices. This did have an impact on the wool and mohair price. The second obstacle was an extended drought necessitating the reduction of stock and the feeding of animals with the related importation of food. There were some isolated cases of bankruptcy and suicide connected with the drought. The third followed the rain which turned the drought into a green drought, but resulted in diseases which erupt with the flowering of certain veld specimens. Now the corona pandemic and lockdown!
As South Africa had a bit of time before any citizens were found to be positive, preparation for lockdown was possible. This included the descendants of farming families who have migrated elsewhere in the country for work and livelihood to come home. One family has been able to have everyone home for the first time in fourteen years. Simultaneously, farmers had to procure sufficient food and other essentials for their staff who work on the farms as the usual end of the working week usually included a trip into town to procure necessities and for off-duty workers to go home was terminated. Farmers are wholly responsible for the hygiene of their farms. Farm workers were given the option of either staying on the farms and working or returning home and facing probable unemployment. Most have remained on farms.
As food is a necessity, farmers have probably had the greatest latitude, continuing their farming enterprises and getting food to their points of processing at least. The sale of wool and mohair was suspended for a while but sales are due to reopen though in an entirely different format to observe social distancing.
Community gatherings have been curtailed, included those of a religious nature. Times to socialize are necessary given the distances that people live apart. To facilitate religious content the electronic media has been used to convey services in one way or another. Funerals, with a limit of fifty people attending, have had to take in farm cemeteries, foregoing the usual service at a town-based place of worship. Personal exercising has been freely undertaken because of the open spaces
The use of electronic media has grown, simultaneously displaying the inventiveness of people to find matter to post - keeping the spirits up. Through the media, farmers have become aware of townspeople in need of food and have generously contributed to feeding schemes.
Rural farming communities will face probably the problem of transportation and marketing
Logistical constraints in marketing, contraction in demand, and reduction in labour demand.
Covid-19 Pandemic has the significant impact on Agriculture in India. It has affected Farmers, Traders, Processors, Input suppliers and Exporters. We did a detailed study around major Indian crops to understand the impact. You may visit the following web page to know the detail impact on Spice industry, Sugarcane industry, Potato crop, Mango crop and Mint (Menthol) crop. Some reports are to be published soon.
http://ecociateconsultants.com/impact-of-covid19-on-indian-agriculture/
You can also visit my research gate page to access some of the reports
Santosh Gupta
Dear G. P. Gangwar
In Uttarakhand due to low infrastructure in state farmers are not able to transport their products in other state. Mar-Jun in state is season for local small food industries to sell their burans juice, citrus squashes but this time nor tourist are here nor transport and cold storage facilities are available in state.
In my small island (San Pietro island, Sardinia) we had no case, but people are afraid and many patients are being treated for sleep or psychiatric disorders
Pandemic led to lockdown in India. It led to reverse migration of labour to rural areas.
Now with the sowing season on, there is paucity of labour for farm work.
Dear Colleagues
Just to inform you that I have formally launched a research project into the impact of Covid - 19 Lock down restrictions on farming communities in South Africa, the focus area being the Eastern Cape. Through agricultural networks I have emailed a brief questionnaire to the commercial farmers asking what has stopped, what has continued without hindrance, what has continued with a different and what has started for the first time because of the restrictions. It looks like type of farming and proximity to rural centres are the greatest influence on how farmers have survived. I have asked emerging farmer organizations to administer the same questionnaire in those areas.