Assessment of impact of COVID-19 on farmers’ outlook and perception in Telangana state

This paper discusses farmers’ outlook and perceptions in Telangana during COVID-19 pandemic induced lockdown. A sample of 200 farmers were selected randomly. Majority of the farmers expressed that impact of lockdown was moderate on agricultural operations in standing crop, and severe on availability of labor supply and availability of transport facilities. Nearly 80% of the respondents were happy with the grain procurement scheme of the state government and majority of the farmers (33.5%) approached agricultural extension staff during the lockdown. 47% of the farmers have taken loans from public sector banks. Almost 53% were gearing up for next kharif season and 46% of farmers were having an apprehension of cost of production may increase because of COVID-19 crisis. About 86% farmers felt safe by being in villages. ANOVA test indicates that there is a significance difference of opinion about COVID-19 impact among farmers based on type of crop, age group and land holding size.