Impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on the economic situation and food security of rural households in India

Suresh, Veena; Fishman, Ram; Lieres, J. Sophie von; Rao, Bhavani

doi:10.1108/jadee-07-2021-0177

Cited by 29 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…The results showed that 14% of rural households have food security, and 52.5% need urgent assistance to struggle with inappropriate food insecurity conditions. This finding is consistent with the results of other studies ( 19 , 25 , 38 ). In developing countries, most of the livelihoods of rural households come from the agricultural sector ( 39 , 40 ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 94%

“…In other words, if the household head has a full-time job, less likely to experience a complete decline in income during the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous studies have confirmed the household head's employment status as a determinant of household's food security studies ( 38 , 66 , 67 ). Households with the unemployed head of households having either no fixed income or no income at all are more likely to have food insecurity ( 68 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 73%

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The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Food Security and Food Diversity of Iranian Rural Households

Movahed

Fard

Gholamrezai

et al. 2022

Front. Public Health

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With the onset of the coronavirus crisis, disruption of the domestic food supply chain, loss of revenue, and payments that affect food production have led to severe tensions and food security risks in many developing countries. The rural communities are more at risk of food insecurity due to less access to healthcare and social inequality. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security and food diversity of rural households. The sample included 375 household heads living in the rural areas of Khorramabad county, which was determined using a three-stage cluster sampling method. Data were collected using standard Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) and Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) questionnaires. The results showed that the food security situation of rural households has deteriorated, and consumption of some food groups changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of the multinomial regression model showed that gender, level of education, monthly income, number of employed members, nutrition knowledge, employment status, livestock ownership, and access to credit were significantly associated with the food security of households during the COVID-19 pandemic. The household head's gender, level of education, monthly income, nutrition knowledge, employment status, livestock ownership, and access to credit were significantly associated with dietary diversity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the findings, providing emergency food assistance and cash payments to food-insecure households can reduce the risk of food insecurity in rural households. It is suggested that government policies focus on identifying vulnerable households in rural areas, especially female-headed households, low-income households, and households without a wage income.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 94%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 73%

The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Food Security and Food Diversity of Iranian Rural Households

Movahed

Fard

Gholamrezai

et al. 2022

Front. Public Health

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“…This, in turn, adversely affected household income and, presumably, subsistence food production. These findings reinforce those of other studies on the impacts of the pandemic in rural areas of India (Jaacks et al, 2021;V. Suresh et al, 2022).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Can Restoration of the Commons Reduce Rural Vulnerability? A Quasi-Experimental Comparison of COVID-19 Livelihood-based Coping Strategies among Rural Households in Three Indian States

Hughes¹,

Priyadarshini²,

Sharma³

et al. 2022

Int J Commons

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India has been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the context of a larger quasiexperimental impact assessment, we assess the pandemic's effects on household coping behavior in 80 villages spread across four districts and three states (n = 772). Half of these villages were targeted by a largescale common land restoration program spearheaded by an NGO, the Foundation for Ecological Security (FES). The other half are yet to be targeted but are statistically similar vis-à-vis FES's village targeting criteria. Analyzing the results of a phone survey administered eight to ten months into the pandemic and its associated lockdowns, we find that the livelihood activities of households in both sets of villages were adversely impacted by COVID-19. Consequently, most households had to resort to various negative coping behaviors, e.g., distressed asset sales and reduced farm input expenditure. From the same mobile survey data, we construct a Livelihoods Coping Strategies Index (LCSI) and find that households in villages targeted by FES's common land restoration initiative score 11.3% lower on this index on average, equating to a 4.5 percentage point difference. While modest, this statistically significant effect estimate (p < 0.05) is consistent across the four districts and robust to alterative model and outcome specifications. We find no empirical support that our observed effect was due to improved access to common pool resources or government social programs. Instead, we speculate that this effect may be driven by institutional factors, rather than economic, a proposition we will test in future work.

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“…Varshney et al (2021) analyzed the impact of India's COVID-19 social assistance package using direct cash transfer and appreciated that emergency relief packages were delivered with lower transaction costs, minimal leakages, and in a timely manner. The food consumption pattern has changed towards subsidized staple foods in rural households due to enhanced vulnerability (Suresh et al, 2022). To overcome the challenges of COVID-19 pandemic, there was an immediate need for cash and food relief among the rural households (Sukhwani et al, 2020).…”

Section: Literature Review and Research Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

The COVID-19 pandemic: access to relief under social assistance programs by rural households in India

Ali

Khan

2022

IJSE

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PurposeThis paper aims at analyzing the determinants of access to relief under social assistance programs among rural households during COVID-19 outbreaks in India.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on the data of COVID-19-Related Shocks Survey, which covered 5,200 rural households across 6 states of India namely Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh. The access to relief has been assessed as relief-in kind (RIK) as a free special package of wheat, rice, and pulses, supplied through the public distribution system; and direct benefit transfer (DBT) in cash under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) Yojana and the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY). The association between demographic profiles of rural households and access to relief has been analyzed using the chi-square test. Further, marginal effects have been estimated to assess the determinants of rural households' access to relief.FindingsThe results show a significant association between types of relief vis-à-vis demographic profiles of the rural households. A significant difference in access to relief among rural households is also evident across the states. Further, the analysis of the marginal effects indicates that female-headed households belonging to lower social class, depending on non-agricultural occupation with lower income, belonging to below poverty line families and seeking wage employment, are more likely to access relief as food grains; whereas male respondents with lower age, belonging to lower-income quartile with memberships in Self Help Groups are more likely to access the cash benefit transfers.Practical implicationsThe COVID-19 pandemic has affected the food security and livelihood of many across the globe, which necessitated provisioning a package of support to everyone, particularly rural poor households. The World Bank undertook the COVID-19-Related Shocks Survey to provide a quick policy response for managing the risk of COVID-19 outbreak effectively. The results of this study provide timely insights for developing an effective relief strategy for rural households during a crisis.Originality/valueThere is limited investigation on access to relief by rural households during the COVID-19 outbreaks and factors affecting the access to relief in terms of cash and kind. This study has utilized a reliable data source to analyze the access of relief packages by the rural communities during the coronavirus outbreak.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-10-2021-0632.

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Impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on the economic situation and food security of rural households in India

Cited by 29 publications

References 31 publications

The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Food Security and Food Diversity of Iranian Rural Households

The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Food Security and Food Diversity of Iranian Rural Households

Can Restoration of the Commons Reduce Rural Vulnerability? A Quasi-Experimental Comparison of COVID-19 Livelihood-based Coping Strategies among Rural Households in Three Indian States

The COVID-19 pandemic: access to relief under social assistance programs by rural households in India

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