Issues and Challenges Faced by Small and Marginal Farmers during COVID-19 Pandemic

Agriculture is an important sector of Indian economy as it contributes about 17 per cent to the total GDP and provides employment to over 60 per cent of the population. Among 60 per cent of total workforce, 82 per cent of farmers in India were small and marginal farmers. Sudden outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic impacts small and marginal farmers to carry out their farming activities. Hence, it is important to study various issues faced by small and marginal farmers during COVID-19 pandemic. The study has been conducted in North western zone of Tamil Nadu and a total sample size of 320 has been fixed for the study based on Cochran’s sample size estimation. Problem confrontation Index (PCI) has been computed to measure various issues faced by small and marginal farmers during COVID-19 pandemic. From the calculated PCI value, it has been concluded that the farmers faced major issues such as wastage of the produce (919), drop in regular farm income (915), hike in input price (868), limited government support (844) and lack of access to market (816). Hence, the government should take necessary steps to ensure fair functioning of local mandis and markets in terms of open auction, price negotiations and logistics, proper unloading and storage of farmers’ perishable produce to overcome their issues to stabilize their standard of living.