Impact of the Corona pandemic on the livelihoods of rural farmers in some selected areas of Khulna district in Bangladesh

Abstract

The rapid transmission and outspread of the Coronavirus quickly caused a global pandemic and its associated circumscription measures have produced a variety of unexpected disturbances to agricultural and socioeconomic systems around the world. Therefore, the study was conducted to determine the impact of the Corona pandemic on the livelihoods of rural farmers, to determine rural farmers’ perceived impacts of the Corona pandemic on agricultural systems, to explain the magnitude of the impacts of the Corona pandemic in some selected areas of Khulna district in Bangladesh. Data were collected from purposively selected 110 respondents using a pre-tested interview schedule through personal interviews conducted from March, 2023 to April, 2023. Descriptive statistics such as range, frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation and rank order were used whenever possible. Majority (45.5%) of the respondents had medium sized families where the majority (61.8%) of them had high farming experience, 66.4% had small-sized farms and the highest portion (48.2%) had medium income. The majority (58.2%) of the respondents had a moderately clear perception of the impacts of the pandemic on agricultural systems while 18.2% and 23.6% of respondents had partially clear and highly clear perceptions, respectively. The highest portion (55.5%) of the respondents perceived that they had a moderate impact on their livelihood activities followed by a partial impact (44.5%). The majority (53.6%) of the respondents perceived that the lockdown had a moderate impact on agricultural production followed by a partial impact (46.4%). About 43.63% of respondents considered economic loss as the highest magnitude of impact while 41.81% considered a reduction in income and an increase of agricultural input cost resulting in a higher cost of production. The existing impacts of the Corona pandemic should be minimized by taking proper initiatives by the concerned authorities to ensure a better standard of life for rural farmers.