S. V. Divya, D. Lawrence Rajadurai
The entire world reeled under the pressure of Covid-19 since early 2020. The daily life of each and every individual on the planet came to a grinding halt due to the pandemic tremendously affecting all the economies. With global lockdowns, all the sectors were affected beyond measure. Agriculture and horticulture too were not spared from the clutches of covid-19 and it affected the input, processing and output of the sectors. The global import and export of these sectors too bore the brunt and exhibited a painful picture. The horticultural crops like vegetables, fruits and flower markets were adversely affected thereby impacting farmers miserably. All states except Gujarat (5%), Rajasthan (2.5%) and Karnataka (1.7%) have witnessed a decrease in production in the horticulture sector. Amongst the larger states, Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu faced the highest decline of 18%, 17.9 and 13.9% respectively. Moreover, the horticultural sector was also affected by the non-availability of labourers. Due to the lockdown, many of the migrant agricultural labourers returned to their native states creating a huge demand for agricultural labourers. Such factors make it imperative to shed light on the crisis. Hence, against this backdrop, the present study has been taken up to analyse the impact of Covid-19 on the production and marketing of horticultural crops in Tamil Nadu.
Covid-19, Horticultural crops