Economic Analysis on Covid-19 in Rural Economy

Abstract

IntroductionThe government of India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered a nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus outbreak in four phases as Phase 1: 25 March 2020-14 April 2020 (21 days), Phase 2: 15 April 2020-3 May 2020 (19 days), Phase 3: 4 May 2020-17 May 2020 (14 days), Phase 4: 18 May 2020-31 May 2020 (14 days) and ban the people from stepping out of their homes and all human economic activities for their breadwinning are paralyzing all over India. The government of Tamil Nadu followed the central government order. It implemented the same, which leads a great loss of economic activities of every individual, specifically in the rural agricultural economy.Objectives• The general objective is to identify the Economic effect of Covid-19 in the study area, specifically.• To examine the socio-economic status of the respondents in Musuvanoothu Panchayat.• To find out the awareness, perception and adapted preventive measures apart from social distance in the study area and• To identify the challenges and problems due to lockdown in the study area.Methods and MaterialsIt is a cross-sectional study with primary data collected from a panchayat. A panchayat named Musuvanoothu was selected from Nilakkottai Taluk, Dindigul District. The panchayat is consists of six hamlets with 1078 ration cardholders receiving their ration items from two ration shops one in head village Musuvanoothu and another one in Kallukottai. The respondents were selected from the head village ration shop accessing people alone and the interviewed number is 615 out of 670. The remaining persons are reluctant to answer the questions raised by the interviewer. A Purposive nonrandom sampling method was used in this paper with simple percentage analysis.Results and DiscussionThree fourth of the respondents are belong to the high potential age group of the labor force and doing farming activities, specifically floriculture and intercropping with vegetables. The yields obtain during the lockdown period leftover on the farm and losing earnings in front of their eyesight. Advances of money taken from the flower and vegetable merchants for farming activities cannot repay/settle by the farmers in the study area. Also, respondents borrowed money from money lenders for their lockdown food consumption expenses.ConclusionHealthy innocent farming communities are suffering from stress and mental health issue due to lockdown. A good amount of economic loss incurred which can be mitigated or avoided if public cold storage is availed in the study area. Small and marginal farmer’s agricultural loans & credit may be waived for their betterment in forthcoming days.