Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Agricultural Output of Farmers with Special Reference to Selected Districts of Punjab

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely impacted the economy of India and the world. The agricultural sector of our country has also been adversely affected. The agricultural sector of our country was already very weak and due to COVID-19 it became more vulnerable due to which the farmers had to face many problems during COVID-19 lockdown. As a result, the income of farmers has reduced and they are not being able to survive. The study was conducted in the food grain market of two districts of Punjab (Pathankot & Gurdaspur) with a sample size of 147 people. The survey was done through questionnaires (Google form). The convenience sampling technique (unrestricted sampling) is used in this study. It’s a type of Non Probability Sampling. We conducted our research to find out the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on agricultural output. The five-point interval scale (likert scale) was used to measure the perception of respondents (farmers) on 18 parameters related to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. Anova and regression (inferential statistics) were used to find out the impact of variables on farmers. 54.1% of impact is explained by our independent variables. The research suggests that there is a considerable degree of impact of COVID-19 pandemic on agricultural output of farmers.

Keywords: Agricultural Output, COVID-19, Agricultural Sector

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