The COVID-19 Induced Disruptions across Groundnut Value Chain: Empirical Evidence from South India

Abstract

We study the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the groundnut value chain and all the actors involved in its value chain in Ananthapuramu district of Andhra Pradesh, a leading groundnut producing state in south India. The results revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic created a double burden on farmers by disrupting farm production on one side and decreased diet diversity on the other. Disruption in farm productions resulted in a decline in household income and increased consumer food prices. The effect on farmers snowballed to other actors in the value chain, and all the actors were affected variably. Availability of storage infrastructure would have saved the farmer’s household income to some extent during the pandemic. Supply of diverse nutrient foods through the existing public distribution system, which mostly provides wheat and rice, might have helped tackle the diet diversity issue amongst farmers. Farmer’s collectives were perceived to reduce the negative impact during natural disasters like the COVID-19 pandemic by helping to organise smallholder farmers, minimise transaction costs and increase their bargaining power. In addition, effective farm extension services, including market information, could have benefited farmers during the crisis.

Causal Impacts of Epidemics and Pandemics on Food Supply Chains: A Systematic Review

“…Operational and contingency plans [41,68] Manage both operation and inventory [41] Synchronize strategic processes [46] Policy support for infrastructure development such as storage, cold chains and pack houses [105] Cooperation and collaboration Private or government institutions need to invest in storage centres [132] Supply-side; demand-side; logistics and infrastructure; management and operation…”

“…Order's cancelations and rescheduling [10,13,36,39,72,79,101,102,105,113,115,126,154,[163][164][165][166][167][168] Stability and business continuity plans Limit exposure to the international market and meeting local demand [34] Additional safety stock [166] Cooperation and collaboration Collaboration with suppliers and deadline agreement [167] Supply-side; logistics and infrastructure; management and operation…”

“…Fluctuation in supply and demand [5,7,8,14,25,28,29,[36][37][38][39]41,[46][47][48]50,54,57,60,63,64,74,76,[78][79][80][81]84,92,93,[100][101][102][105][106][107][108]111,114,118,123,125,131,132,137,139,142,144,146,149,155,159,…”

Covid, the Environment and Food Systems: Contain, Cope and Rebuild Better

“…The spread of COVID-19 in slaughterhouses-not from meat itself but from the working and living conditions-is particularly important (Science Media Centre, 2020). More generally, restrictions on movement enacted to prevent the spread of the virus are starting to disrupt the supply of agri-food products to markets and consumers, both within and across borders (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2020b;Nandi et al, 2021). 6 How this impacts the wider community will depend on national policy responses.…”

“…Building back better includes ensuring healthy diets, slashing food loss and waste, reducing GHG emissions to limit climate change and adapting to its inevitable impacts, reversing habitat loss, limiting animal-human disease transmission, developing rural areas to create jobs and to improve the livelihoods of people living in poverty, and maintaining ecosystem services, such as clean water and air, on a rapidly urbanizing planet. Factors such as unequal access to land tenure, financial resources and decision-making power can create economic stress in households, leaving women disproportionately exposed to climate-related food security risks (Nellemann et al, 2011). Securing land rights for local communities can help address these issues to some extent.…”