Impact of COVID-19 on rural agriculture of Warangal district (Telangana)

The outburst of COVID-19, affecting millions of lives has been coincided with harvesting of rabi season crops like paddy and maize in Telangana. The immediate impact from pandemic lockdown were shortage-of labour and hiked charges of the limited labour available, shortage of machinery and farm inputs. This paper provides a preliminary assessment of the adaptation strategies of Telangana farmers under such conditions. The assessment is based on telephonic survey of 30 farmers from three villages (Houzebuzurg, Neredpalli, Nandigama) of Warangal district, Telangana in the early month of May, 2020 to understand-the impact of pandemic lockdown on rabi crop. Amidst challenges, farmers adopted different strategies as influenced by their holding size, financial resources, and access to local information networks. Marginal and small farmers increased the use of family labour, while medium and large famers showed an increased use of machinery which suggested improved farmer’s ability to adapt to the lockdown.