SUSEELA, K.ANTHONY, REMALLI2023-07-142023-07-142023-07-13D6363https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810198217IMPACT ANALYSIS OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON PADDY PRODUCTION AND MARKETING IN WEST GODAVARI DISTRICT OF ANDHRA PRADESHThe sudden imposition of the lockdown, with very little grounding or scheduling, has impacted agriculture and the food systems in many different ways. Rice is an important food crop and it has greater economic importance among the food crops, rice was majorly affected by the restrictions during COVID-19 since the harvesting period coincided with the restrictions on the movement of people and machinery. Andhra Pradesh is the major rice-producing state in India, especially West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh with highest area of 1.7 million hectares, with a production of 2.65 million tonnes production and with 6723 kg ha-1 productivity (Agricultural Statistics at a glance, 2019-2020) too got affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The problems Viz., lack of accessibility to market, timely and non-availability of inputs, high wage rate and scarcity of labour due to social distancing measures, high transporting costs and restrictions on transport, high input cost and non-availability of the required information on price in other markets were also experienced by the rice farmers of West Godavari district. Keeping in view of the above problems the research study was designed “Impact analysis of covid-19 pandemic on paddy production and marketing in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh” with the following objectives examined the factors determining paddy production and marketing during COVID-19 regime. 1. to study the socio-economic conditions of the paddy farmers. 2. to analyse the factors determining production and marketing of paddy during COVID-19 Regime. 3. to analyse the challenges faced by the farmers both in paddy production and marketing during COVID-19 regime. 4. to suggest the coping strategies to be followed by the farmers during COVID-19 regime. Multistage sampling design was used for selection of sample at different levels of district, mandal and village for the present study. West Godavari district that positions highest paddy production in Andhra Pradesh was selected. Three mandals were selected based on the highest area under paddy cultivation from West Godavari district were Tadepalligudem, Ungutur, Pentapadu. Two villages with xi maximum area of paddy and production were selected from each mandal, thus making a total of six villages selected for the present study. Twenty farmers from each of the selected villages were randomly selected, thus comprising a total of 120 farmers from six villages for collecting necessary information related to the objectives of the present research study. The data pertains to the year 2019-20. Primary and secondary data were collected and analysed through tabular analysis using descriptive statistics, ordinal logistic regression and Garrett’s ranking technique were followed. Socio-economic conditions of the paddy farmers were analysed by using descriptive statistics and results revealed that the majority of the respondents were belonged to age 31-50 years category. About 22.50 percent of the respondents were illiterate, majority of the respondents were belonged to primary school and high school i.e., 57.50 per cent, 20 per cent were in high school category. Majority of the respondents i.e., 71.67 per cent were had the experience between 11-30 years, it was observed that 85 per cent of the respondents belongs to the nuclear family. Half of the respondents were belonged to small size (1-4) family i.e., 50.83 per cent followed by 34.17 per cent belonged to medium size (5-7). Average annual income of the farmer respondents per year from the paddy crop was about 40.93 per cent of the total household annual income. From agricultural labour it was about 38.98 per cent. The average annual income of the farmer respondents from other occupations was about 20.10 per cent of the total household annual income. Large portion of the respondents were belonged to marginal (<1 ha) and small (1 ha – 2 ha) category i.e., 20.83 percent and 38.33 percent respectively. About 20.83 per cent of respondents were tenants. Among the respondents, 65.00 per cent were agricultural labour and 17.50 per cent of the respondents were involved in dairy activities as secondary occupation. About 57.50 per cent of the sample farmers had access to institutional credit and 50.83 per cent of the farmers had access to non-institutional credit. Significant source of water structure of rice crop was observed to be canals 88.11 per cent followed by bore wells 11.71 per cent. The factors determining production of paddy during COVID-19 regime was analysed using ordinal logistic regression and results revealed that the availability of machinery to the farmers had positive marginal effect implies that, other things remains constant, a unit increase in availability of machinery the probability of being in the low yield loss category was increased by about 26.06 per cent, whereas, the probability of being in medium and high yield loss category was decreased by about 7.87 per cent and 18.17 per cent respectively. The shortage of the inputs to the farmers had negative marginal effect implies that, other things remain constant, a unit increase in shortage of inputs the probability of being in low yield loss category was reduced by 11.58 per cent, whereas, the probability of being in medium and high yield loss level was increased by 3.75 per cent and 7.82 per cent respectively. The increase in wage rate of labour had negative marginal effect implies that, other things remain constant, a unit increase in wage rate of labour the probability of being in low yield loss category was reduced by 78.41 per cent, whereas, the probability of being in medium and high yield loss category was increased by 41.20 per cent and 37.20 per cent xii respectively. The labour scarcity had negative marginal effect implies that, other things remain constant, a unit increase in labour scarcity the probability of being in low yield loss level was reduced by 78.21 per cent, whereas, the probability of being in medium and high yield loss category was increased by about 19.63 per cent and 58.59 per cent respectively. The increase in cost of inputs had negative marginal effect implies that, other things remain constant, a unit increase in cost of inputs the probability of being in low yield loss level was reduced by about 16.30 per cent, whereas, the probability of being in medium and high yield loss category was increased by about 7.68 per cent and 8.62 per cent respectively. Marginal effects of education, extension contacts, experience and size of the land holding implies that, other things remain constant, a unit increase in education, extension contacts, experience and size of the land holding increase the probability of being low yield loss category by about 6.22 per cent, 16.37 per cent, 0.58 per cent and 0.78 per cent respectively. The factors determining marketing of paddy during COVID-19 regime was analysed using ordinal logistic regression and results revealed that the non-availability of storage facility had negative marginal effect implies that, other things remain constant, a unit increase in non-availability of storage facility the probability of being in low income loss level decrease by 24.89 per cent, whereas, the probability of being in medium and high income loss level increased by about 9.36 per cent and 15.53 per cent respectively. The restrictions on movement of produce had negative marginal effect implies that, other things remain constant, a unit increase in restrictions on movement of produce the probability of being in low-income loss level decreased by 82.89 per cent, whereas, the probability of being in medium and high-income loss level increased by about 49.36 per cent and 33.53 per cent respectively. The labour scarcity had negative marginal effect implies that, other things remain constant, a unit increase in labour scarcity the probability of being in low-income loss level decreased by 37.36 per cent, whereas, the probability of being medium and high-income loss level increased by about 16.01 per cent and 21.35 per cent respectively. The availability of transportation facility had positive marginal effect implies that, other things remain constant, a unit increase in availability of transportation facility the probability of being in low-income loss level increased by 17.64 per cent, whereas, the probability of being medium and high-income loss level decreased by about 2.70 per cent and 14.94 per cent respectively. The access to market information had positive marginal effect implies that, other things remain constant, a unit increase in access to market information the probability of being in low-income loss level increased by 30.81 per cent, whereas, the probability of being in medium and high-income loss level decreased by about 15.65 per cent and 46.46 per cent respectively. Challenges faced by farmers both in paddy production and marketing during the COVID-19 regime were analysed by using Garretts ranking technique and results revealed that major were high input cost (rank I) followed by High wage rate of labour (rank II), High Transportation cost (rank III), Delay in crediting the amount by govt. after procurement (rank IV) and Nonavailability of farm labour (rank V). Constraints can be mitigated with the following suggestions xiii i.e., Government should make arrangements to establish custom hiring centers on cluster basis and thus, enable the farmer to mechanize the farm operations, Government should make arrangements to provide adequate inputs to the farmers through Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBKs) at judicious time and prices, periodical trainings should be provided to the farmers on low-cost mechanization techniques developed by various research agencies, labour scarcity issue should be addressed by diverting MGNREGA workers towards farm operations, Government should promote Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in a big way to disseminate correct and reliable market information to the farmer in right time, Government should encourage the construction of scientific warehouse facilities at rural/mandal level and these should be integrated to e-NAM for efficient marketing, Government should promote marketing linkages by establishing paddy FPOs and linking these FPOs with e-NAM there by promoting online marketing of paddy, farmers should enter into contractual arrangements with the millers/processors so as to procure the farm produce at farm gate in view of COVID-19 pandemic, link roads should be strengthened to transport the produce efficiently to the nearby markets.EnglishThesis