11 - Impact of COVID-19 and lockdown policies on farming, food security, and agribusiness in West Africa

Abstract

The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is having devastating impacts across the globe. Among the implemented policies to reduce the spread of the disease is lockdown. This might have serious impact on farming activities and the livelihoods of millions of people whose daily means of sustenance is tied to agricultural activities. We undertook this study in West Africa, one of the most fragile and vulnerable regions to the epidemic. Our aim was to understand (1) farmers' perception of the impact of COVID-19 and lockdown policies on their farm or business revenue, (2) farmers' preparedness for COVID-19 lockdown on their farm or business revenue, and (3) the impact of effectiveness of COVID-19 lockdown on their farm or business revenue. We combined online questionnaire, physical contact and administration, and social media (Facebook and WhatsApp) to get responses from 303 farmers in Nigeria and Ghana. Our findings show that COVID-19 and lockdown policies negatively affected the farmers. The impact of COVID-19 and lockdown policies on respondents' farm or business revenue was independent of either age or gender of respondents and the effectiveness of lockdown in both the countries. The status of lockdown in respondent places (locked down versus not locked down) and the level of preparedness of farmers to handle the situation with the current COVID-19 crisis in their farms were also independent in both the countries. However, we found that the impact of COVID-19 and lockdown policies on farm or business revenue depends on the level of preparedness of farmers to handle the situation in each country. We further found that the impact of COVID-19 and lockdown policies on farm or business revenue was independent of the status of lockdown but rather depended on the preparedness for the current COVID-19 crisis and differently across countries. Our findings suggest that building capacities of farmers and supporting them in preparedness for such occurrence, as well as establishing and implementing public policies in this direction, can mitigate the impact of the pandemic on their activities.