Tenterhooks of corona virus (COVID-19) on food and nutrition security, and economic status of agri-business farmers in Oyo state Nigeria

Abstract

The scourge of Corona virus (Covid-19) has created indelible crisis in the entire world’s agricultural food system. A study was carried out to assess the impacts of Corona virus (Covid-19) on the food and nutritional security, and economic status of Agri-business farmers in Oyo State, Nigeria. The demographic study revealed that 85% of the farmers had tertiary education, while 51.4% of the farmers have over ten years’ experiences in agri-business. The highest population of the participants can only afford to eat nutritious food once per day. The pandemic reduced people’s capacity to access and utilize nutritious food regularly. Majority (98.6%) of the farmers affirmed that agricultural activities contribute to achieving Food and Nutrition security in Nigeria. During the Covid-19 pandemic, there was intensive lockdown with ban on the inter-and intra-state travels. About 66.2% farmers affirmed that Covid-19 pandemic negatively influenced their agribusiness while 62% farmers identified lack of fund to be the major constraint in agri-business at the time of pandemic. It follows that the Covid-19 pandemic negatively affected the livelihood of farmers in terms of food and nutrition security as well as economic and agricultural activities. Conclusively, the tenterhooks of Covid-19 caused panic, agribusiness-crisis, food insecurity, and economic downturn amongst farmers in Oyo state but care must be taken to avoid lockdown which threatens food supply.