Vol. 11, Special Issue 6 (2022)

Author(s):
Afshana Bano, Dr. Shijaatt Hussain Bhat, Dr. Syed Shafat Kubrevi, Sheikh Salma Irshad, Farhat Nabi, Jasima Ali, Bisma Jan, Aaqib Rafiq, Irfath Rashid, Farhana, Farah Farooq, Sadaf Hussain, Rufaida Siraj and Huzaifa Farhein

Abstract:
The agriculture sector represents a vital component of the Indian economy both in terms of its contribution to GDP and is a source of employment to majority of Indian population. 68 per cent of total Indian population lives in rural areas and depend directly or indirectly on agricultural operations. There is uniform distribution of villages in India and every state constitutes more than 50% of rural population (GOI, 2019). Currently, this sector is showcasing immense opportunities, with India being one of the world's largest producers in agriculture. Pandemics have annihilated human beings in multitudes compared to all the major warfares in the past (Adda, 2016). SARS-CoV-2 virus popularly known as COVID-19 or coronavirus affects human health by means of zoonotic transmission (Bhattacharya et al. 2021). After reporting its first case on January 30, 2020, India is the second worst affected country in the world with more than 43 million cases reported till date (Worldometer, 2022). But not only on health, it has had a devastating impact on socio-economic activities of all the sectors. The major affected areas are trade, global supply chains, agriculture, transportation, tourism, automative industry, electronic industry, etc. As a consequence of COVID -19, the deadliest pandemic in the modern history, many countries introduced complete or partial lockdown. India a ted quite early by introducing a 21-day nationwide first such lockdown starting from 25 March, 2020 which is rated greater than 80 in the global stringency index as a plan of action for flattening the curve of COVID-19 infection. In wake of this lockdown, migrant workers throughout the country were left with no income. In this paper, the implications of COVID -19, all the allied sectors of agriculture have been emphasized. Secondary data sources are used. Published data from various journals, books, magazines and websites. The analysis of issues and challenges faced by these sectors by projecting how the economy changed due to COVID-19 has been stressed out. How Indian agriculture recovered by means of initiatives taken and how it fulfilled the responsibility to feed thousands of mouths who lost their livelihood has been discussed in this paper.