India’s food system and food environment and its possible impact of COVID-19 on food security: Insights from selected locations in Telangana, India

ICRISAT undertook a telephonic survey during July -August 2020 to understand the different perspectives of prevailing COVID-19 crisis in urban, peri-urban, rural and tribal areas of Telangana. About 40 households were randomly selected for this survey covering urban, peri-urban, rural and tribal locations of Telangana. These households were recruited as respondents for previous surveys by ICRISAT for different projects. The NNEDPro survey questionnaire was adapted and translated into local language for better understanding of the surveyor as well as the participant and probe questions were added for eliciting detailed information. Informed audio consent was undertaken through mobile phone and the personal individual interviews were conducted to elicit the data regarding the agriculture and food security situation during the COVID-19 crisis in their respective locations. The recorded data was transcribed by the enumerators and later translated into English language. Mixed responses evolved with regard to agriculture and losses incurred during COVID-19 crisis. In case of urban and peri-urban locations, information on agriculture especially post-harvest losses due to lack of access to markets was projected and the source of information was mostly through secondary source of information through media such as television news, newspaper and radio. In case of tribal areas, millets and cereals were procured by government agricultural department at the farm gate thereby no losses were incurred by farmers who grew cereals and millets. The farmers who grew vegetables incurred losses due to lack of conveyance/ transport to the nearby markets during the complete lockdown. As the vegetables are perishable goods, and due to shortage of labor for harvesting the produce, they incurred huge postharvest losses. Consumption of cereals and pulses distributed through Public Distribution System (PDS) has increased at the household level in peri-urban areas. Consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables and spices has also increased in both urban and peri urban locations. There was no change in the number of meals consumed and quantity of meals (rather quantity was reduced due to low physical activity and being confined to homes) while home cooking was the most preferred choice. Outside food and junk food was almost completely eliminated in the diets of the urban and peri-urban areas. In case of tribal areas, the adolescents and school age children lost their nutritious meals that were served either in their residential schools or midday meals in the government schools. There also emerged some differences between complete lockdown that was in place in late March and early April 2020 and the lockdown with fewer restrictions during June-July 2020. Similarly, the effect of food security at the household and individual level emerged differently across locations as well as during different periods.