Assessment of farm constraints and income losses during COVID-19 lockdown in India

A telephonic survey was conducted during May 2020 among 675 farmers across 28 districts of 11 states of India to assess farm constraints and income losses of lockdown 1.0 and 2.0. The results indicate that labour availability and input accessibility were hurdles, but manageable to some extent. However, marketing constraints inflicted 48 and 19% losses in total expected income of perishable and non-perishable commodities and average loss per farm household was 0.93 lakh (28%). Although, income support was given through PM-KISAN, it was not adequate to compensate losses. Therefore, farm income support needs to be enhanced to cope with lockdown losses.