Pandemic Beyond Cities: Health Impacts of COVID-19 on Farmers in the Karnataka–Maharashtra Border Region of India

Agriculture sector has endured multi-dimensional losses across the demand and supply chain due to nationwide lockdown to restraint the spread of COVID-19. Intensity of crisis was severe in country like India where agriculture is a major source of income for millions of rural populations and it had taken the lead in providing employment and revenue-generating opportunities. The present study was undertaken to access the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on farmers’ health. Investigation relied on both primary and secondary data. The primary data were collected using pretested, well-structured schedule by personal interview method from 120 farmers across four taluks in Belagavi district of Karnataka-Maharashtra border area and the secondary data were collected from various official websites and published sources on COVID-19. The collected data were analysed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis. Results revealed that, totally, 174 COVID-19 cases were reported in 120 sampled households with a morbidity rate of 30.16 per cent and on an average case count of 0.32, in which 158 cases were recovered (90.80% of recovery rate) and 16 deaths were observed, reporting a fatality rate of 9.19 per cent and an average case count of 0.03 death per household. The higher prevalence of disease in the study area was related to close contact with neighbouring state (Maharashtra). Literacy and family size were found to be significant and positively influencing the incidence rate of COVID-19. Whereas, awareness about mode of infection had negative and significant effect on COVID-19 morbidity rate. On other hand prevalence of other diseases, incidence rate, and severity of symptoms positively and significantly affected the fatality rate due to COVID-19. However, increase in availability of medical facilities decreased the fatality rate indicating the negative relationship on each other. And the coefficient of multiple determination (R2) for morbidity rate and fatality rate were 0.8912 and 0.8012, indicated the good fit of multiple regression model.