Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on Agricultural Production and Marketing in Sri Lanka

COVID-19 has been affecting the agriculture sector in general, in almost all the countries. Some countries have become vulnerable in terms of producing their required food, thus facing food security problems. The objectives of this paper are (i) to find out the major problems faced by both crop and livestock sectors in Sri Lanka due to COVID-19, pertinent to their production, harvesting and marketing, (ii) to find out their perceptions on future production planning, input availability and market availability, and (iii) to investigate on the farmers’ and experts’ views on production planning, input supply and supply chain management. Data were collected from experts in the field of agriculture, including academia, researchers and practitioners, through a structured e- questioner and farmers in the field level as case studies.Results of the study show that the main problems were the insufficient manpower and availability of inputs for agriculture and animal husbandry. Since food supply chains were disrupted resulting in greater wastage of perishable food, online distributors emerged, but many of them lack the capacity to serve a larger customer base. Further, labor intensive agriculture and food processing were affected due to health guidelines. Certain imported foods were not found in the markets and respondents anticipate there will be unpredictable price fluctuations of food items in future in the market. Small-scale horticulture and livestock farmers, small and medium scale traders, and value-added producers were the hardest-hit due to COVID-19. It was noteworthy to see that, none of the crop or livestock farmers has the intension of quitting the field of agricultural production due to COVID-19 impacts. Regression output reveals lack of support policies, lack of transport and logistics, and higher prices of non-stable commodities will result in a severe impact due to COVID-19. The main suggestions were to avoid food wastage and to improve input and output distribution in agricultural production