How India’s agrifood supply chains fared during the COVID-19 lockdown, from farm to fork
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indian government imposed a stringent national lockdown from March 24 to May 31, 2020, which caused severe disruptions across agrifood supply chains from “farm to fork.” The government was consistently one step behind in terms of preventing these problems (Narayanan and Saha 2020b). The lack of labor and machinery disrupted harvests and brought warehouse operations to a virtual standstill. Regulated markets where farmers sell produce were intermittently closed and village traders and merchants did not show up to make purchases. Our survey of around 370 farmers across nine Indian states found that among those who had harvested some produce this season, 29 percent were still holding on to it; 13 percent had sold the harvests at throwaway prices and about 7 percent reported that they had to let the produce go to waste.