Archives of Agriculture and Environmental Science 5(4): 548-553 (2020)
https://doi.org/10.26832/24566632.2020.0504018
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Archives of Agriculture and Environmental Science
Journal homepage: journals.aesacademy.org/index.php/aaes
e-ISSN: 2456-6632
ARTICLE HISTORY ABSTRACT
Received: 11 September 2020
Revised received: 15 December 2020
Accepted: 20 December 2020
This study assessed the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on production, trade and income of
smallholder vegetables growers in the Kathmandu valley, Nepal. We made a scenario-based
situation analysis of pre-COVID (January to March 2020) and COVID-19 pandemic induced
lockdown (April to June 2020) situations. The study used a descriptive research design and
employed multistage sampling techniques. One hundred forty-fve vegetable growers were
surveyed and six focus group discussions were carried out between May to July 2020 in the
three municipalities- Chandragiri, Mahalaxmi and Changunarayan of Kathmandu, Lalitpur and
Bhaktapur districts respectively. The study showed that the income of smallholders' vegetable
growers was decreased by 66.1 percent due to an increase in input price (16.9 percent), a
decrease in output price (62.67 percent), and low farm productivity (9.3 percent) in compari-
son with the pre-COVID period. This paper has fgured out the impact pathways that caused
the income decline of vegetable growers. The primary constraints to smallholder producers
were the absence of local aggregators followed by transportation barriers, limited market
opening hours, and mobility obstruction and changed consumers' behavior due to lockdown.
Majority of the farmers adjusted to the situations by selling their products at lower prices, free
distribution to the local inhabitants, and composting and dumping the surpluses. The study
concluded that this kind of analysis is necessary to develop resilient supply chains and extend
appropriate support to the smallholder farmers who are critical actor to the supply chains.
©2020 Agriculture and Environmental Science Academy
Keywords
COVID-19
Impact pathways
Lockdown
Vegetable value chain
Citation of this article: Gadal, N., Neupane, B., Shrestha, R.B. and Baniya, S. (2020). Effects of COVID-19 induced pandemic on the
production, trade, and income of smallholder vegetable growers in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. Archives of Agriculture and Environmental
Science, 5(4): 548-553, https://dx.doi.org/10.26832/24566632.2020.0504018
Effects of COVID-19 induced pandemic on the production, trade, and income of
smallholder vegetable growers in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal
Nirmal Gadal
1*
, Basanta Neupane
2
, Rudra B. Shrestha
3
and Susan Baniya
2
1
Agriculture Knowledge Center, Lalitpur - 44700, NEPAL
2
Bairen Agro Consultant and Traders, Lalitpur - 44700, NEPAL
3
SARC Agriculture Center, Dhaka - 1215, BANGLADESH
*
Corresponding author’s E-mail: nirmal.gadal2006@gmail.com
INTRODUCTION
The COVID-19 pandemic is the biggest national health crisis in
Nepal's modern history, which has devastating impacts on the
economy and the agricultural sector. To curtail the virus spread,
the Government of Nepal announced a lockdown starting from
24 April 2020, encouraging producers, traders, processors, and
consumers in the value chain to implement stay-at-home order
and public health protocols, including social distancing, which
impaired the overall food demand and supply systems of
Kathmandu valley. The COVID-19 pandemic has endangered
the livelihoods of millions of people worldwide, and the negative
impacts of the pandemic on food and nutritional security are
deepening globally. This global health crisis is particularly
threatening to the global poor, who are already suffering from
hunger and malnutrition before the virus hits (Elizabeth Bryan
et al., 2020 and UN, 2020). According to FAO and ECLAC
(2020), global poverty will increase by 548 million, and there
will be an increase in the number of food-insecure people,
estimated at 183 million because of the COVID-19. How
damaging these impacts turn out to be for food security, nutri-
tion, and farmers and fshers' livelihoods will depend in large
part on policy responses over the short, medium, and long term
(OECD, 2020). Studies have found that the impacts of COVID-
ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE