COVID-19 and distortions in urban food market in India

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Abstract

In this paper, we study the effects of the spread of COVID-19 on retail and wholesale prices of urban markets in India, as well as price distortion between markets and the mark-up between retail and wholesale prices. Using fixed-effects panel regression models, we find that with the spread of COVID-19, prices increased for commodities with longer shelf-life such as pulses and processed items, while prices of vegetables such as onions and tomatoes declined substantially at the onset of the pandemic. Further, market distortions increased significantly for most commodities. Pulses experienced large price distortions between markets as well as mark-ups between retail and wholesale prices. We, however, do not see any major price distortions in the market for rice and wheat, which are controlled by Government’s minimum support prices.

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The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s41775-022-00130-3.

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Conceptualising COVID-19’s impacts on household food security

Stephen Devereux, Christophe Béné, John Hoddinott (2020)

COVID-19 undermines food security both directly, by disrupting food systems, and indirectly, through the impacts of lockdowns on household incomes and physical access to food. COVID-19 and responses to the pandemic could undermine food production, processing and marketing, but the most concerning impacts are on the demand-side – economic and physical access to food. This paper identifies three complementary frameworks that can contribute to understanding these effects, which are expected to persist into the post-pandemic phase, after lockdowns are lifted. FAO’s ‘four pillars’– availability, access, stability and utilisation – and the ‘food systems’ approach both provide holistic frameworks for analysing food security. Sen’s ‘entitlement’ approach is useful for disaggregating demand-side effects on household production-, labour-, trade- and transfer-based entitlements to food. Drawing on the strengths of each of these frameworks can enhance the understanding of the pandemic’s impacts on food security, while also pinpointing areas for governments and other actors to intervene in the food system, to protect the food security of households left vulnerable by COVID-19 and public responses.

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Information from Markets Near and Far: Mobile Phones and Agricultural Markets in Niger

Jenny C Aker (2010)

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Food system disruption: initial livelihood and dietary effects of COVID-19 on vegetable producers in India

Jody Harris, Lutz Depenbusch, Arshad Ahmad Pal … (2020)

Disruption to food systems and impacts on livelihoods and diets have been brought into sharp focus by the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to investigate effects of this multi-layered shock on production, sales, prices, incomes and diets for vegetable farmers in India as both producers and consumers of nutrient-dense foods. We undertook a rapid telephone survey with 448 farmers in 4 states, in one of the first studies to document the early impacts of the pandemic and policy responses on farming households. We find that a majority of farmers report negative impacts on production, sales, prices and incomes. Over 80% of farms reported some decline in sales, and over 20% of farms reported devastating declines (sold almost nothing). Price reductions were reported by over 80% of farmers, and reductions by more than half for 50% of farmers. Similarly, farm income reportedly dropped for 90% of farms, and by more than half for 60%. Of surveyed households, 62% reported disruptions to their diets. A majority of farm households reported reduced ability to access the most nutrient-dense foods. Around 80% of households reported ability to protect their staple food consumption, and the largest falls in consumption were in fruit and animal source foods other than dairy, in around half of households. Reported vegetable consumption fell in almost 30% of households, but vegetables were also the only food group where consumption increased for some, in around 15% of households. Our data suggest higher vulnerability of female farmers in terms of both livelihoods and diet, and differential effects on smaller and larger farms, meaning different farms may require different types of support in order to continue to function. Farms reported diverse coping strategies to maintain sales, though often with negative implications for reported incomes. The ability to consume one’s own produce may be somewhat protective of diets when other routes to food access fail. The impacts of COVID-19 and subsequent policy responses on both livelihoods and diets in horticultural households risk rolling back the impressive economic and nutrition gains India has seen over the past decade. Food systems, and particularly those making available the most nutrient-dense foods, must be considered in ongoing and future government responses.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Pallavi Rajkhowa:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3265-2420

pallavirajkhowa@uni-bonn.de , diptarajkhowa@gmail.com

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Indian Econ Rev

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Indian Econ Rev

Title: Indian Economic Review

Publisher: Springer India (New Delhi )

ISSN (Print): 0019-4670

ISSN (Electronic): 2520-1778

Publication date (Electronic): 30 May 2022

Publication date PMC-release: 30 May 2022

Pages: 1-32

Affiliations

GRID grid.10388.32, ISNI 0000 0001 2240 3300, Center for Development Research (ZEF), , University of Bonn, ; Bonn, Germany

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Pallavi Rajkhowa http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3265-2420

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Publisher ID: 130

DOI: 10.1007/s41775-022-00130-3

PMC ID: 9149335

SO-VID: bcd3a8cb-0d9a-4c34-82ec-8a679043b8f3

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Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

History

Date accepted : 2 May 2022

Funding

Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100006456, Bundesministerium für Wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung;

COVID-19 and distortions in urban food market in India

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Novel Coronavirus Disease COVID-19

Most cited references 20

Conceptualising COVID-19’s impacts on household food security

Information from Markets Near and Far: Mobile Phones and Agricultural Markets in Niger

Food system disruption: initial livelihood and dietary effects of COVID-19 on vegetable producers in India

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