Vol. 10, Special Issue 7 (2021)

Author(s):
Puja Basumatary and Porna Sarmah

Abstract:
The COVID-19, the pandemic is the worst and the greatest global humanitarian challenge the world has faced in more than 100 years. The virus has spread widely, as it is very efficient at human to human transmission. With its spread and the rise in number of cases in India, governments worked swiftly to slow its spread by implementing a nationwide, 21-days lockdown on 24 March 2020. However, the lockdown came with an economic cost and have huge impact on all the sections of society with complete closure on enterprises across all sectors. Even though emergency services and agricultural activities were exempted, in the initial phases of the lockdown the agricultural front were witnessed disruption in activities relating to harvesting and marketing of agricultural crops and commodities. A marginal and small farm holder which constitutes a big part of the agricultural economic system within the country and constitutes more than half of the national population comprises 86.08 per cent of India’s cultivated and uncultivated land. Small holder contributions in food security and poverty alleviations are thus dis-appropriately high and increasing. Having a greater role in supplementing nation's food requirement, they are hit hardest due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns. Therefore, the present study was done to assess the impacts of lockdown within small farm holder in term of challenges faced by small and marginal farmers in the district.