ASSESSING THE VULNERABILITY AND RESILIENCY OF INDIAN AGRICULTURE: A COVID-19 PERSPECTIVE

The COVID-19 pandemic, a global health debacle of present century, has posed the greatest challenge before humanity since Second World War. Almost all nations of the world have swung into actions to slow down the transmission of the disease following the guidelines of WHO (World Health Organization), and these has led to a virtual lockdown across the globe. During these challenging times, the 140 million farm households of India have been greatly impacted by the process of nationwide containment measures. The snap of agro-food supply chain, labor shortages in farms, disruption of logistic means and shortage of food storage due to panic- buying in urban areas are some of the challenges that have come up in the aftermath of COVID19 pandemic. It is noteworthy that in spite of all such negativities, unlike Industrial and service sectors, the agriculture sector of India has proved to be the resilient pillar of economy accounting for 5.9% growth as compared to overall 3.1% in Q4 (January to March) of current financial year. The central and state governments have also taken up prompt steps to help the agriculture sector overcome this unprecedented crisis. The present paper is a narrative review of literature accessed from journals, articles, newspaper and reports of different websites. This investigation is intended to provide a rationale for understanding the vulnerability and resiliency of agricultural sector during COVID-19 crisis