Constraints analysis during covid-19 lockdown and rehabilitation measures for farmers

Agriculture and allied sector are the largest source of livelihood in India. About 120 million small holder farmers play crucial role in the food chain of country. The novel Corono virus 2019 currently designated as COVID -19 and its spread across the country threatened all the sectors of development in India. The small and marginal farmers were most affected by the series of lockdown imposed by the governments in lieu of containing the COVID-19 spread since 23^rd March 2020. The research has been conducted to prioritize constrains faced by the farmers of Ariyalur District of Tamilnadu and to suggest suitable rehabilitation measures to ensure the well being of the farmers. The study was conducted in two villages each in six blocks of district and ten farmers in a village were randomly selected to arrive at 120 respondents for the study. The survey was conducted using well designed questionnaire and information were collected over phone calls. The data collected were analyzed using statistical tools like frequency and percentage to rank the constraints faced by the farmers. Difficulties on getting farm input and animal feed, lack of outside merchants for procuring the farm produces, lack of technical experts to solve the field problems on time, unawareness about Government schemes were the major impediments as expressed by 93.33, 81.66, 80.83 and 74.16 per cent of the respondents, respectively. The rehabilitation measures like hike of PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, facilitation of free flow of credits and subsidies, restructuring of marketing mechanisms including fixing up of MSP were suggested.