The Covid 19 pandemic caused many issues for the whole world. Increased levels of food loss and wastage due to market closure, blockages to transport routes, and declined demand were visible during the pandemic. It brought up job losses from farmers to many more sectors in the world Farm businesses experienced disruptions to production because of lowered availability of labor and other inputs, and output prices were affected by changes in demand for commodities in certain market segments.
The COVID-19 impact is a health and humanitarian crisis threatening the pillars of food and nutrition security of millions of people around the world. Thus, occurred a farmer crisis worldwide. Nearly three-quarters of farmers faced a reduction in harvest yields due to this.
Below discussed are a few challenges faced by farmers
Labor Shortage
Harvesting season is imminent for many products in the northern hemisphere, and a shortage of labor led to production losses and shortages in the market. In many countries, this comes on top of existing difficulties in sourcing seasonal labor during covid-19. This is also known as the farmer crisis.
Farm Incomes
Moreover, those farm household income losses may be compounded by reduced off-farm income. Due to a lack of staff and work being stopped or paused, there is no possibility for a profit gain in the agricultural sector. The farmers will find it difficult to earn their income as there will be no continuous work going on.
Effect on Farmer Goods
The covid-19 impact on losses of farmers’ goods, especially fresh vegetables, fruit, and milk products. There will be disruptions to food supply chains.
COVID-19 resulted in the movement restrictions of workers, changes in the demand of consumers, closure of food production facilities, restricted food trade policies, and financial pressures in the food supply chain. Therefore, governments should facilitate the movement of workers and agri-food products.