Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the constraints faced by smallholder rice farmers of Meghalaya

Abstract

Rice is an important cereal crop of India. In Meghalaya state of NE India, significant increase in the production of rice was observed in recent years, however, the production is still much below the demand of the state and productivity below the national average. The COVID 19 pandemic and the resultant lockdown significantly affected the rice farmers, especially the small and marginal farmers with sustenance farming. The present study was taken up in Ri-Bhoi and West Jaintia Hills districts to study the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the smallholder rice farmers of Meghalaya by comparing the constraints faced by them before and during the pandemic. 98 rice farmers were sampled from 3 villages of each district. Important constraints confronting the farmers in rice production were lack of awareness on improved varieties, lack of training, unavailability of experts, unavailability of seeds and high cost/shortage of labors. COVID-19 pandemic specific problems identified were difficulty to procure/ unavailability of seeds and high cost of labour/shortage of labour.The study suggests thorough capacity building programmes with proper follow-ups, harnessing ICT tools and platforms for linking farmers with experts and promoting community/local seed entrepreneurs (seed producers) for supply of quality seeds to the farmers.