COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the Indian agricultural system extensively. Nevertheless, the recent quarterly GDP estimates post-COVID scenario showcase robustness and resilience in Indian agriculture, the only sector to register a positive growth of 3.4% during the financial year (FY here after) 2020–21 (Quarter 1: April 2020 to June 2020). At the same time, the immediate past quarter growth was estimated at 5.9% witnessing a decline by 2.5% point. In this context, we aim to synthesize the early evidence of the COVID-19 impact on the Indian agricultural system viz., production, marketing and consumption followed by a set of potential strategies to recover and prosper post-pandemic. Survey findings indicate that the pandemic has affected production and marketing through labour and logistical constraints, while the negative income shock restricted access to markets and increased prices of food commodities affecting the consumption pattern. The pandemic wreaked a substantial physical, social, economic and emotional havoc on all the stakeholders of Indian agricultural system. Seizing the crisis as an opportunity, the state announced a raft of measures and long-pending reforms. We propose a 10-point strategy ranging from social safety nets, family farming, monetizing buffer stock, staggered procurement to secondary agriculture to revive and prosper post-pandemic.

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Field data collected in central India over a two-year period showed that Bt cotton hybrids reduced plant protection costs by Rs1,268/ha (Rs41 = US$1), raised the crop yield by 2.01 q/ha, worth Rs6,394/ha, and reduced the time spent by the crop in the field by 15–20 days. Cultivation of Bt cotton involved an additional cost of Rs3,720/ha, but increased the net returns by Rs2,674/ha over conventional hybrids. The higher price of seed, high risks, poor refuge management, incidence of wilt, high rates of discontinuance and poor monitoring were the major constraints reported by growers. The impact would be greater if the technology were embodied in the commonly grown hybrids. Development of transgenic varieties is one of the prime ways of reducing crop costs for the resource-poor conditions of rainfed central India.

A study based on regional and micro level household data was taken up to inquire in to the impacts of a national rural employment guarantee scheme (NREGS) in India. Studies in four sample districts in predominantly rainfed areas, which benefited from the scheme for the last six years indicated that the scheme attempted to address the core issue of rural unemployment of unskilled labor in earth works related to natural resource management. Primarily the rural labor obtained seasonal employment, but the resource poor farmers also participated in the Scheme more so in states like Maharashtra. The study findings indicated that the seasonal migration of rural labor has come down significantly due to the opportunities of employment provided under the scheme. The share of NREGS employment was up to one-third of wage days in some of the study districts. Similarly the contributions of income to the family from the wages of participation in the scheme were in the range of 12 to 33 per cent across the districts. These additional incomes were used by the rural households primarily for food security, education of dependents, health care and debt repayment. Wherever, the there were surpluses beyond these expenses, the households acquired durable assets and created amenities in the households. The negative fall out of the Scheme, albeit at a low scale, especially from the farming point of view is that there was abnormal rise in the wage rates. The scheme thus is a revolutionary one with broad spectrum impact on the rural milieu of India.