COVID-19 Effects and Resilience of Vegetable Farmers in North-Western Nigeria

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has particularly affected the supply of perishable foods such as vegetables, which could adversely affect food and nutrition security. Here, we study the mechanisms by which COVID-19 has affected vegetable production and the coping strategies adopted by smallholder farmers. We use cross-sectional data collected through individual interviews on a random sample of 521 vegetable producers in north-western Nigeria. The perceptions of respondents, measured on a 5-point Likert scale (from 1—not affected, to 5—severely affected), shows that COVID-19 had an average effect of 3.07 (±1.23) on vegetable production. Farmers also reported challenges in accessing farm inputs and storing or selling fresh vegetable produced. In response, farmers reduced market-oriented vegetable production, produced more vegetables for own consumption, added value through own home processing and storage, explored new markets, and accepted lower farmgate selling prices. A multivariate probit regression shows that socio-economic factors such as age, household size, marital status, challenges in accessing inputs, and perceptions of the effects of COVID-19 influenced farmers’ decisions to adopt particular coping strategies. To sustain vegetable supplies, policy makers should consider investing more in market-oriented strategies such as vegetable processing and storage, which individual farmers may not be able to afford due to high costs, lack of information and required knowledge on good agronomic practices, postharvest handling, storage and market. Public extension services can contribute to help farmers to adapt better.

Farmer perceptions of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on agriculture: A case study from Madura Island, Indonesia

“…The questionnaire included modules on personal and farmer household socioeconomics, agriculture systems, knowledge, and perception of the effects of COVID-19 on cropping and livestock systems. We combined two previous studies (Middendorf et al, 2021;Yegbemey et al, 2021) to determine the perception scale challenge of the cropping and livestock systems. We ask the questions: access to seeds (ASEED), access to fertilizer (AFTZ), access to pesticide (APTC), hired labor (HL), ability to plant crops in the upcoming season (CUS), food storage (FSTR), transportation of agricultural products (TAP), restriction of markets/selling crop products (RM), access to inputs for livestock (AIL), feeding livestock (FL), selling livestock products (SLP) and farm income (FI).…”

The effect of COVID-19 pandemic on market integration: Evidence from vegetable farmers in Pakistan

“…Such measures disrupted agricultural productivity, participation in input and output markets (markets integration), and supply chains, delivering an enormous shock to the global economy in 2020, as indicated by early estimates of 495 million jobs lost and a 5.2% contraction in global output [ 5 ]. Consequently, farmers involved in market-oriented farming suffered significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic [ 6 ].…”

Impact of COVID-19 on the Agriculture Sector: Survey Analysis of Farmer Responses from Kerala and Tamil Nadu States in India

“…The global COVID-19 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has impacted all sectors including agriculture, business, employment, entertainment, education, economy, transport, social and religious gatherings, food security, and sports [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. COVID-19's impacts on the agriculture sector differ from region to region, with the major issues being reported including labor and machinery shortages, limited access to crop fields and markets, poor access to agricultural inputs, services, and advisory services, supply chain disruptions, and perishability of the products due to limited access to Agronomy 2022, 12, 503 2 of 9 market and insufficient post-harvest handling [4,[9][10][11][12][13][14][15].…”

“…COVID-19's impacts on the agriculture sector differ from region to region, with the major issues being reported including labor and machinery shortages, limited access to crop fields and markets, poor access to agricultural inputs, services, and advisory services, supply chain disruptions, and perishability of the products due to limited access to Agronomy 2022, 12, 503 2 of 9 market and insufficient post-harvest handling [4,[9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. Many studies reported manpower shortages affecting a spectrum of activities from seeding to post-harvest handling [8,13,16]. Additionally, lockdowns have significantly affected agriculture commodity movement and marketing of the products [14,17].…”

“…Within the agriculture sector, the impacts of COVID-19 vary with crops; the impact seems to be more on perishable commodities including vegetables and fruits compared to nonperishable products [8], such as rice, and this emphasizes the requirement for enhancing post-harvest processing or value addition of agricultural commodities [18]. Due to restrictions imposed on transport and movement due to lockdown, supply chain disruptions were apparent in many regions [19].…”