Impact of COVID-19 on Agriculture, Countryside and Farmers and Countermeasures

Wanyu ZHANG

School of Economics and Management, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434023, China

Abstract COVID-19 outbreak has great impact on agricultural and rural farmers.In order to effectively cope with the impact of COVID-19 epidemic and promote agricultural and rural development, this paper expounds the impact of the epidemic from three aspects of agricultural production, farmers and rural development, and puts forward corresponding countermeasures: building development platform for rural electric business, implementing the development mode of "Internet plus agriculture", strengthening the input and publicity of agricultural insurance to benefit farmers, and increasing support for local employment and entrepreneurship of migrant workers.

Key words COVID-19, Agriculture, Rural areas and farmers, Countermeasures

1 Introduction

The COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020 has caused a great impact on China’s economy, especially in agriculture and rural areas.Due to the implementation of epidemic prevention and control measures such as "spring ploughing and farming" and "closing villages to roads", agricultural production and migrant workers’ employment have been affected to varying degrees.At present, the epidemic situation has been effectively controlled in China, and the production and living order is gradually recovering.However, for the rural areas with weak economic foundation, the impact of the epidemic on the agriculture and rural areas will continue.At the same time, 2020 is the decisive year of completing the task of poverty alleviation and building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way.It is necessary to carry out sustained, scientific and accurate prevention and control of the epidemic, so as to promote the orderly recovery of agricultural and rural production and operation activities, ensure the smooth channels of migrant workers’ reemployment, accelerate the recovery of rural infrastructure construction, and effectively deal with the "additional test questions" brought about by the epidemic.We will successfully complete the task of getting rid of poverty as scheduled and ensure the realization of the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way.

2 Impact of COVID-19 on agricultural production

2.1 Impact on grain planting industry

During the period of epidemic prevention and control, rural areas generally adopted the measure of "closing villages and roads" to block the circulation of vehicles and personnel.At that time, it was in the critical stage of spring ploughing and preparation.Some agricultural means enterprises had not yet returned to work and production.The "last kilometer" of agricultural means transportation and marketing, such as seeds, fertilizers and pesticides, was blocked, making it difficult to enter the shops and villages.In addition, some local rural epidemic prevention measures take "one size fittings all", affecting the normal agricultural activities, and the spring ploughing is facing great pressure.On the other hand, the shortage of agricultural materials reserves in the early stage of rural areas and the poor transportation during the epidemic period greatly affected the supply of agricultural materials, leading to the rise of agricultural production costs.At the same time, a large number of farm workers need to be employed in the spring ploughing season.Under the influence of the epidemic, many problems emerge, such as the difficulty of employing workers and the rising cost of employing workers, which has increased the huge pressure on the grain planting industry, which has already had low income.In view of the negative impact of the epidemic, the state has actively taken effective measures, such as early planning, early coordination and early implementation, continuously strengthening the supervision of the agricultural means market, increasing the guidance for farmers to purchase agricultural means scientifically, and implementing the "green channel".However, due to the inconsistent prevention and control measures in various regions, it still takes a certain time for the effective restoration of agricultural production order.

2.2 Impact on livestock and poultry industry

Due to the negative impact of COVID-19, the aquaculture industry is facing a severe test.The livestock and poultry industry in China is mostly distributed in villages and towns.During the epidemic period, due to the "closing of villages and roads" blocking the transportation of feed, veterinary drugs, vaccines and other materials to the households, and at the same time, due to traffic restrictions, slaughterhouses have not yet resumed work, banning the sale of live poultry and other measures, the poultry farmers are facing serious losses.One disaster after another, combined with COVID-19 in 2019 has caused heavy losses to the pig industry in China.The overlay of the COVID-19 epidemic is undoubtedly a further increase in the whole pig industry.The impact of the epidemic on the pig industry is mainly manifested in the shortage of feed caused by road barriers, poor purchase of veterinary drugs, and blocking of filling and marketing.On the other hand, the issuance of the "ban on wild animals order" makes the farmers of artificial breeding land wild animals face the "test of life and death", and the special farmers face the dilemma and transformation problems of "unable to sell, store or raise".How to help special farmers find "new jobs" and minimize losses is also a test for governments at all levels.

2.3 Impact on vegetable planting

Affected by epidemic prevention and control, the vegetable market in China is faced with problems such as the poor connection of supply and demand channels, the decline of overall demand, the blocked supply of agricultural resources, and the increase of transportation and human cost.During the prevention and control period, due to the traffic control in different regions, the regional vegetable transportation was affected by different degrees.On the one hand, the price of vegetables in cities remained high and on the other hand, the prices of large quantities of unsalable vegetables in vegetable producing areas declined.Meanwhile, during the epidemic, a large number of vegetable trading markets closed, and the rural and rural trade markets in urban areas were closed.International orders fell sharply, and a large number of catering industry closed, schools closed, residents went out to eat less, which led to the decline of vegetable trading demand.Affected by traffic control, the supply of agricultural materials such as seedling, film and fertilizer in vegetable producing areas is blocked, which leads to the delay of sowing of some vegetables.Because COVID-19 has the risk of human transmission, the transportation manpower cost is increased to avoid the decrease of vegetable transportation personnel during the risk epidemic situation.On the other hand, the vehicles across the region are restricted, and the transportation time of vegetables has increased, which leads to the increase of loss and cost.In order to prevent the adverse effects of the epidemic, the central and local governments have issued support policies to ensure the normal supply of vegetables.According to the volume of agricultural and sideline products such as vegetables, financial subsidies are given to the circulating expenses of enterprises, and the circulation enterprises are supported to increase the organization and supply.

3 Impact of COVID-19 on farmers

3.1 Migrant workers return to work blocked, facing the risk of unemployment

During the Spring Festival holiday, migrant workers who had been working outside the country, had returned home for the holiday.With the outbreak of the epidemic, the State Council issued the notice of extending the Spring Festival holiday and delaying the resumption of work and labor by enterprises, which makes the migrant workers face great resistance to the resumption of employment.The report of monitoring and survey of migrant workers in 2019 issued by the State Bureau of Statistics shows that the total number of migrant workers in China exceeds 290 million, and that the "post-80s" youth migrant workers exceed half of the total number of migrant workers.The labor-intensive industries such as catering, hotel, entertainment and foreign trade processing, which have a great impact on the epidemic, are the main industries to undertake the employment of young migrant workers.Under the influence of the epidemic, a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises and individual merchants are facing difficulties such as capital shortage and product stalling.Many enterprises have to cut their jobs and pay, and some even close down.This has brought a greater test to the already severe employment market.Migrant workers are facing a growing shortage of jobs.As the epidemic situation improves, the regions are gradually resuming work.On the one hand, many enterprises are reduced by the epidemic situation, and the employment pressure in various regions is in short supply.A large number of migrant workers can not find jobs and have to choose to return home.On the other hand, many peasant workers are worried about the infection of COVID-19 and choose to stay at home and face unemployment risk.

3.2 Increasing farmers’ income is facing great challenges

Farmers’ income is mainly composed of wage income, agricultural operating income, property income and transfer income.In recent years, farmers’ wage income has increased year by year and become the main source of farmers’ income.At the same time, there is still room for its proportion to continue to increase.Agricultural operating income has become the second largest source of farmers’ income.According to statistics, the per capita disposable income of rural residents in China in 2019 was 16 021 yuan, of which 41% was wage income and 36% was operating income.There are 290 million peasant workers in China, including 170 million migrant workers and 120 million local workers.The impact of COVID-19 on employment directly affects the income increase of 290 million farmers.The Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta are two main areas where migrant workers are inflow.Due to the impact of international epidemic, orders for foreign trade enterprises have dropped.Many domestic small and medium-sized enterprises are faced with a lot of layoffs.According to the statistics of relevant departments, in early April, the number of migrant workers that returned to work in large-scale enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises reached 100 million, accounting for nearly 60% of migrant workers, which directly affected the income of migrant workers in the first quarter.At the same time, for the farmers who have lived in rural areas for a long time and are engaged in agricultural management, the closure of villages and roads has made it difficult for agricultural materials and feed to enter the villages, resulting in the impact on spring ploughing and sowing, livestock and poultry breeding, so the increase of farmers’ income is facing challenges.

3.3 Enhancing the enthusiasm of farmers to develop new business forms and new models

Affected by COVID-19, many agricultural products in China are experiencing various levels of unsalable sales, which brings enormous pressure to increase farmers’ income.More and more farmers are actively using the Internet to broaden sales channels.Mobile phones have become "new farm tools" and live broadcast has become "new farm work".Mobile live broadcast sales make farmers transform from simple producers to the integration of production and marketing.This transformation saves the middleman link, realizes the win-win situation between farmers and consumers, and greatly mobilizes the enthusiasm of farmers.Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the agricultural products of Chun’an are facing sales difficulties, which has brought enormous pressure to Chun’an’s farmers’ income.In order to solve the problem of unsalable sales, help the mountain products to go out, the Chun’an Women’s Federation has launched the "women help farmers and thousands of village nuns" as the anchor.Through the government guidance, mass leadership and social support, the service system of "cloud belt goods, village anchors and help groups" has been formed to make every effort to help enterprises and farmers.Since the launch of the activity in March, Chun’an has held training meetings for village girls as anchors in 23 villages and towns of the county, trained more than 1 000 "village girls as anchors", promoted and sold 336 kinds of agricultural products online, with online sales of 1.481 million yuan.

4 Impact of COVID-19 on rural development

4.1 The resistance to poverty alleviation has been strengthened

At the national Two Sessions in 2020, Premier Li Keqiang pointed out in his government work report that this year we should resolutely win the battle of poverty alleviation.Under the current standards, all the rural poor will be lifted out of poverty, and all the poor counties will be removed from the hat.Relevant statistics show that by the end of 2019, the number of rural poor people in China had decreased from 98.99 million at the end of 2012 to 5.51 million, and the remaining 52 poor counties and 2707 poor villages were not listed.The COVID-19 has brought new challenges and difficulties to tackle the poverty alleviation task.Although the impact of COVID-19 in the remote mountainous areas with low population density is temporary and controllable, the outbreak of the epidemic has hindered the employment of a large number of poor households and blocked the important income of the poor households.At the same time, the delay of poverty alleviation work for poor households, the delay of poverty alleviation project construction, and the difficulties faced by poverty alleviation industry increase the resistance to poverty alleviation in 2020, and also increase the risk of poverty return for poor households who have just completed poverty alleviation.

4.2 The progress of rural human settlements environment improvement and construction is slowing down

Improving the rural living environment and building a beautiful and livable new countryside is an important task of implementing the strategy of rural revitalization, which is related to the overall construction of a well-off society and the fundamental blessing of the majority of farmers.In February, 2018, the general office of the CPC Central Committee and the general office of the State Council issued the three-year action plan for rural human settlements environment improvement.It was planned to achieve a significant improvement of the living environment by 2020, the village environment is basically clean and orderly, and the awareness of the villagers’ environment and health is generally enhanced.After the outbreak of COVID-19, in order to do a good job in the prevention and control of the epidemic and effectively reduce the risk of epidemic spread, the rural infrastructure construction has been suspended for months.The rural domestic waste treatment, domestic sewage treatment, toilet renovation, and improvement of village appearance construction have been delayed, which makes the realization of the improvement of human settlements environment obviously face challenges in 2020.

4.3 Rural grass roots governance ability highlights

With the outbreak of COVID-19, the first 31 provinces and municipalities in the country started to respond to major public health emergencies at the end of January, and COVID-19’s control and prevention war was officially launched.The Central Committee and the State Council of the CPC deployed in time, and the epidemic prevention work was carried out in rural areas of the country.COVID-19 is a disease that is not well suited to the rural medical system.The head and party secretary of each village actively organize villagers to carry out investigation work, screen the external and heating personnel from door to door, set up monitoring points at the village mouth, and use patrol vehicles, UAVs and mobile phone platforms to carry out epidemic prevention and control publicity and education to villagers, so that villagers can realize the importance of epidemic prevention and control to enhance the awareness of villagers.On the other hand, rural doctors are actively organized to ask and consult in rural areas, which plays an active role in the prevention and control of rural epidemic.In the prevention and control of the epidemic, the effective prevention and control of grass-roots cadres and epidemic prevention publicity played an important role in the prevention and control of rural epidemic in poor medical conditions.The spread of epidemic situation was effectively blocked in rural areas, and the grass-roots governance ability was highlighted.

5 Countermeasures and suggestions

5.1 Building a rural e-commerce development platform and implementing the Internet plus agriculture mode

We should vigorously develop rural e-commerce, make up for the shortcomings of rural e-commerce infrastructure as soon as possible, and build a sound system of rural e-commerce development platform.During the period of epidemic prevention and control, a large number of agricultural products are blocked.Modern business models such as e-commerce and online live broadcasting should be used to implement "point-to-point" assistance between the "vegetable basket" project in large and medium-sized cities and the agricultural products of poverty alleviation industries in poor areas, so as to help the agricultural products in poor areas solve the problem of difficult sales during the epidemic period, and give full play to the role of e-commerce in helping agriculture during the epidemic period.At the same time, we can set up online agricultural products stores, realize the docking of agricultural products, and actively apply the development mode of "Internet plus agriculture" to expand various network sales channels.We should also increase the construction of agricultural products circulation network and cold chain transportation, systematically consider the construction of e-commerce sales supporting facilities, and constantly innovate new business models and circulation formats of agricultural products.

5.2 Strengthening the investment and publicity of agricultural insurance benefiting farmers

We should increase the agricultural insurance premium subsidy policy to benefit farmers, actively respond to the impact of the epidemic on new agricultural business entities, increase policy agricultural financing guarantee, and support the stable production and supply of important agricultural products.We should give priority to farmers and agricultural operators who are seriously affected by the epidemic to prevent the situation of "returning to poverty due to the epidemic", and give full play to the important role of policy agricultural insurance in the prevention and control of the epidemic.According to the situation of agricultural production in different regions, we should constantly improve the business model and service system of policy oriented agricultural insurance, optimize the disaster claims service, and establish an agricultural insurance mechanism to promote the long-term and stable development of agriculture and rural areas.Meanwhile, COVID-19 is also being used as an opportunity to strengthen agricultural insurance to farmers, enhance farmers’ ability to cope with major agricultural disasters and promote sustainable development of agriculture and rural areas, so that farmers can really benefit.

5.3 Increasing support for migrant workers’ local employment and entrepreneurship

We should make full use of the opportunity of a large number of labor force staying in rural areas due to the epidemic, seize the advantages of human resources, and strengthen the skills training of migrant workers.Through the combination of mobile phones, computers and other online platforms with offline guidance, we can carry out skill training through multiple channels to improve the ability of migrant workers to serve rural infrastructure construction and rural industry, and take this as a good opportunity to promote rural revitalization.We should help township enterprises with strong labor absorption ability to return to work and production, strengthen the transmission of employment information, encourage diversified forms of employment, deeply connect with local agricultural enterprises, excavate jobs, combine employment demand with employment intention, arrange jobs for migrant workers nearby, and promote the employment of migrant workers.We should actively encourage and guide migrant workers to start their own businesses, and increase policy support for migrant workers to return home to start their own businesses, so as to promote employment through entrepreneurship.