A study on the challenges in marketing in the Covid-19 affected economy by the black pepper growing farmers and recommendations with reference to Kerala

Abstract

Unprecedented incidence of Covid 19, the global pandemic, made the marketing difficult for the spice growing farmers, especially for the black pepper farmers. Covid 19 has disrupted production, processing and marketing of black pepper at different points of the value chain. Since the spice industry is very labour intensive, it has got substantially due to lockdown followed by the Covid 19 incidence. It has affected the availability of labour, availability and proximity of the market place, share of produce sold through different marketing channels, quality and availability of agricultural inputs etc. These factors substantially affected the production and operational costs. This study has conducted among the black pepper farmers of different age, sex, income level, experience in farming, operational land holding etc. with in the geography of Kerala, a south Indian state where many of the farmers grow black pepper. This study is an attempt to investigate the challenges in marketing of black pepper by the farmers in Kerala after the incidence of Covid 19 pandemic. This study also provides recommendations to improve the marketing by overcoming different challenges raised after the incidence of the global pandemic, Covid-19.