doi: Applied Insights Journal of Development Policy Review (JDPR) Vol. 1, Issues 1 & 2, January-March/April-June 2020 ISSN: Applied Rural Futures, the State and Markets Amrita Saha 1 and Marco Carreras 2 The full impact of the coronavirus is unknown and difficult to predict, but its consequences for rural economies is becoming increasingly imminent. Both supply and demand for commodities and services are affected by disruptions in global trade and supply chains and likely to have knock-on effects for farmers and rural businesses. This article focuses on these risks for rural economies, with a focus on India. Understanding how this population will be affected will be key to ascertain the support needed to protect these vulnerable groups, ensuring they are sufficiently prepared. COVID-19 and Rural Economies As COVID-19 unfolds, the disruptions are affecting global food production and creating strong food security risks in many countries. Various nodes in food supply chains that involve a complex network of interactions involving farmers, labourers, input providers, processing plants, retailers and more, are at risk. In fact, the United Nations World Food Programme estimated that about 265 million people could face acute food insecurity by the end of 2020 (Anthem, 2020). For Indian agriculture, employing nearly 55% of the population, forecasts appear to have been mixed. Initially, predictions suggested that the country's farm sector was functioning smoothly (The Economic Times, 2020), even with the lockdown measures. But the reality has been different, with severe disruptions on account of non-availability of migrant labour and transportation problems for supply chains (Dev, 2020). Furthermore, the lockdown has led to delays in procurement of crops from farmers, as harvesting and post- 1 Research Fellow, The Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Sussex, UK. E-mail: A.Saha@ids.ac.uk 2 Research Officer, The Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Sussex, UK.