IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/spr/isbchp/978-981-99-4906-9_12.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

Impact of COVID-19 on Agricultural Markets: Assessing the Roles of Commodity Characteristics, Disease Caseload, and Market Reforms

In: Contextualizing the COVID Pandemic in India

Author

Listed:
  • Deepak Varshney

    (International Water Management Institute)

  • Devesh Roy

    (International Food Policy Research Institute)

  • J. V. Meenakshi

    (Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology)

Abstract

This paper assesses the impact of the spread of COVID-19 and the lockdown on wholesale prices and quantities traded in agricultural markets. We compare whether these impacts differ across non-perishable (wheat) and perishable commodities (tomato and onions), and the extent to which any adverse impacts are mitigated by the adoption of a greater number of agricultural market reform measures. We use a granular data set comprising daily observations for three months from nearly 1000 markets across five states and use a double- and triple-difference estimation strategy. Expectedly, our results differ by type of commodity and period of analysis. While all prices spiked initially in April, they recovered relatively quickly, underscoring the importance of time duration for analysis. Wheat prices were anchored in large part by the minimum support price, while tomato prices were lower in some months. Supply constraints began easing in May with greater market arrivals perhaps reflecting distress sales. Market reform measures did help in insulating farmers from lower prices, but these effects are salient for the perishable goods, and not so much for wheat where the government remained the dominant market player. Taken together, these results point to considerable resilience in agricultural markets in dealing with the COVID-19 shock, buffered by adequate policy support.

Suggested Citation

  • Deepak Varshney & Devesh Roy & J. V. Meenakshi, 2023. "Impact of COVID-19 on Agricultural Markets: Assessing the Roles of Commodity Characteristics, Disease Caseload, and Market Reforms," India Studies in Business and Economics, in: Indrani Gupta & Mausumi Das (ed.), Contextualizing the COVID Pandemic in India, chapter 0, pages 249-271, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:isbchp:978-981-99-4906-9_12
    DOI: 10.1007/978-981-99-4906-9_12
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kanika Mahajan & Shekhar Tomar, 2020. "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow: COVID-19 and Supply Chain Disruptions," Working Papers 28, Ashoka University, Department of Economics.
    2. Ariella Kahn-Lang & Kevin Lang, 2020. "The Promise and Pitfalls of Differences-in-Differences: Reflections on 16 and Pregnant and Other Applications," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(3), pages 613-620, July.
    3. Sudha Narayanan & Shree Saha, 2020. "Urban food markets and the lockdown in India," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2020-017, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    4. Hiroyasu Inoue & Yasuyuki Todo, 2020. "The propagation of the economic impact through supply chains: The case of a mega-city lockdown against the spread of COVID-19," Papers 2003.14002, arXiv.org.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Katsushi S. Imai & Nidhi Kaicker & Raghav Gaiha, 2020. "The Covid-19 Impact on Agricultural Market Arrivals and Prices in India: A Panel VAR Approach," Economics Discussion Paper Series 2010, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    2. Cariappa, AG Adeeth & Acharya, Kamlesh Kumar & Adhav, Chaitanya Ashok & Sendhil, R. & Ramasundaram, P., 2022. "COVID-19 induced lockdown effects on agricultural commodity prices and consumer behaviour in India – Implications for food loss and waste management," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 82(PA).
    3. Varshney, Deepak & Kumar, Anjani & Mishra, Ashok K. & Rashid, Shahidur & Joshi, Pramod K., 2021. "India's COVID-19 social assistance package and its impact on the agriculture sector," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    4. Pallavi Rajkhowa & Lukas Kornher, 2022. "COVID-19 and distortions in urban food market in India," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 133-164, June.
    5. Selvaraj, K. N. & Parimalarangan, R. & Karunakaran, K. R., 2021. "Vegetables Supply Chain Challenges and Salvage during the Pandemic in Tamil Nadu, India," 2021 ASAE 10th International Conference (Virtual), January 11-13, Beijing, China 329404, Asian Society of Agricultural Economists (ASAE).
    6. Syed Abdul Rehman Khan & Pablo Ponce & Muhammad Tanveer & Nathalie Aguirre-Padilla & Haider Mahmood & Syed Adeel Ali Shah, 2021. "Technological Innovation and Circular Economy Practices: Business Strategies to Mitigate the Effects of COVID-19," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-17, July.
    7. Bossman, Ahmed & Gubareva, Mariya & Teplova, Tamara, 2023. "Asymmetric effects of market uncertainties on agricultural commodities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PB).
    8. Weronika Ceynowa & Adam Przybyłowski & Piotr Wojtasik & Łukasz Ciskowski, 2024. "Digitalization and Sustainability of Supply Chains: Assessing the Potential of the DYLLI Application in the Hotel, Restaurant, and Catering Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-20, November.
    9. Arhan Sheth & Tulasi Sushra & Ameya Kshirsagar & Manan Shah, 2022. "Global Economic Impact in Stock and Commodity Markets during Covid-19 pandemic," Annals of Data Science, Springer, vol. 9(5), pages 889-907, October.
    10. Lowe, Matt & Nadhanael, G.V. & Roth, Benjamin N., 2021. "India’s food supply chain during the pandemic," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    11. Consoli, Sarah & Opazo, Cristian Morales & Yerovi, Juan José Egas, 2021. "Realigning Policy Interventions on Agricultural Prices: Monitoring Incentives to Facilitate Economic Recovery in the Post-COVID-19 Era," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315904, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    12. Ruvuna, Eric & Mweruli, Fidèle & Uwingenzi, Marthe & Jeyakumar, Rufus, 2022. "Farmers’ perspective of COVID-19 effects on demand and supply of agricultural commodities in Nyamasheke district, Rwanda," African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development (AJFAND), African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development (AJFAND), vol. 22(10).
    13. Tomas Baležentis & Mangirdas Morkūnas & Agnė Žičkienė & Artiom Volkov & Erika Ribašauskienė & Dalia Štreimikienė, 2021. "Policies for Rapid Mitigation of the Crisis’ Effects on Agricultural Supply Chains: A Multi-Criteria Decision Support System with Monte Carlo Simulation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-31, October.
    14. Consoli, Sarah & Egas Yerovi, Juan José & Machiorlatti, Matteo & Morales Opazo, Cristian, 2023. "Real-time monitoring of food price policy interventions during the first two years of COVID-19," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    15. Francisco Ceballos & Samyuktha Kannan & Berber Kramer, 2021. "Crop prices, farm incomes, and food security during the COVID‐19 pandemic in India: Phone‐based producer survey evidence from Haryana State," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 52(3), pages 525-542, May.
    16. Khan, Syed Abdul Rehman & Razzaq, Asif & Yu, Zhang & Shah, Adeel & Sharif, Arshian & Janjua, Laeeq, 2022. "Disruption in food supply chain and undernourishment challenges: An empirical study in the context of Asian countries," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 82(PA).
    17. Shreekant Gupta, 2020. "Pandemics, COVID-19 and India," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 1-12, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Narayan, Sudha & Saha, Shree, 2020. "One Step Behind: The Government of India and Agricultural Policy During the Covid-19 Lockdown," Review of Agrarian Studies, Foundation for Agrarian Studies, vol. 10(01), July.
    2. Kanika Mahajan & Shekhar Tomar, 2021. "COVID‐19 and Supply Chain Disruption: Evidence from Food Markets in India†," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 103(1), pages 35-52, January.
    3. Kanika Mahajan & Shekhar Tomar, 2020. "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow: COVID-19 and Supply Chain Disruptions," Working Papers 28, Ashoka University, Department of Economics.
    4. Leduc, Elisabeth & Tojerow, Ilan, 2020. "Subsidizing Domestic Services as a Tool to Fight Unemployment: Effectiveness and Hidden Costs," IZA Discussion Papers 13544, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Christopher J. Ruhm, 2019. "Shackling the Identification Police?," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 85(4), pages 1016-1026, April.
    6. Sansone, Dario, 2019. "Pink work: Same-sex marriage, employment and discrimination," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    7. Box-Couillard, Sebastien & Xu, Yilan, 2022. "The Effect of Flood Insurance on Property Values after a Flood," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322191, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    8. Mathias Huebener & Sevrin Waights & C. Katharina Spiess & Nico A. Siegel & Gert G. Wagner, 2021. "Parental well-being in times of Covid-19 in Germany," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 91-122, March.
    9. Dunbar, Kwamie & Treku, Daniel & Sarnie, Robert & Hoover, Jack, 2023. "What does ESG risk premia tell us about mutual fund sustainability levels: A difference-in-differences analysis," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    10. Peng, Ying & Tian, Chuanhao & Wen, Haizhen, 2021. "How does school district adjustment affect housing prices: An empirical investigation from Hangzhou, China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    11. Damian Clarke & Kathya Tapia-Schythe, 2021. "Implementing the panel event study," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 21(4), pages 853-884, December.
    12. Souknilanh Keola & Kazunobu Hayakawa, 2021. "Do Lockdown Policies Reduce Economic and Social Activities? Evidence from NO2 Emissions," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 59(2), pages 178-205, June.
    13. Keiichi Morimoto & Shiba Suzuki, 2022. "Ambiguity in a pandemic recession, asset prices, and lockdown policy," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 24(5), pages 1039-1070, October.
    14. Michał Myck & Mateusz Najsztub, 2020. "Implications of the Polish 1999 administrative reform for regional socio‐economic development," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(4), pages 559-579, October.
    15. Marco Celentani & Miguel García-Posada & Fernando Gómez Pomar, 2022. "Fresh start policies and small business activity: evidence from a natural experiment," Working Papers 2210, Banco de España.
    16. Anton Pichler & J. Doyne Farmer, 2022. "Simultaneous supply and demand constraints in input–output networks: the case of Covid-19 in Germany, Italy, and Spain," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(3), pages 273-293, July.
    17. Nano Prawoto & Eko Priyo Purnomo & Abitassha Az Zahra, 2020. "The Impacts of Covid-19 Pandemic on Socio-Economic Mobility in Indonesia," International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), vol. 0(3), pages 57-71.
    18. Hall, Caroline & Liljeberg, Linus & Lindahl, Erica, 2024. "Firm responses to a more generous insurance against high sick pay costs," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    19. Varshney, Deepak & Joshi, P. K. & Kumar, A. & Mishra, A. K. & Dubey, S. K., 2022. "Examining the transfer of knowledge and training to smallholders in India: direct and spillover effects of agricultural advisory services in an emerging economy," Papers published in Journals (Open Access), International Water Management Institute, pages 160:106067..
    20. Kayaoglu, Aysegul, 2022. "Do refugees cause crime?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    COVID-19; Wholesale prices and trade; Market reforms; Government policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • Q02 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General - - - Commodity Market
    • Q18 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Policy; Food Policy; Animal Welfare Policy
    • L78 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Primary Products and Construction - - - Government Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:isbchp:978-981-99-4906-9_12. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.