Looking Forward to When it is Over: Reactions and Short-Term Coping Micro-Strategies of Polish Fruit and Vegetable Farmers during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Abstract The present paper focuses on farmers’ strategies for coping with the shock caused by the outbreak of the pandemic of COVID-19. Using the concept of farm resilience, which underlines the role of capacity and abilities as well as different actions undertaken in difficult situations, this study proposes an analytical framework of farmers’ coping short-term micro-strategies in relation to external crises, on the example of the COVID-19 pandemic. Taking into account academic literature, qualitative data gathered from fruit and vegetable producers in different regions in Poland and the information from sector experts, the paper outlines the varied consequences of the pandemic for farms, and also farmers’ diverse reactions to them. The findings from this study suggests that the analysed farms’ relative resilience to the crisis was achieved thanks to their available economic and social resources and the actions they undertook. The above-mentioned resources and activities were considered in the study primarily using the relational (process-based) approach, focusing on the ways of their creation, maintenance and adaptation. At the same time, the empirical material under analysis has shown that the adaptive measures adopted were short-term and did not respond to the farms’ permanent problems, which the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated significantly. It is assumed that presented results and proposed framework of farmers’ micro-strategies, which were taken during the pandemic, might be useful for future studies focusing on various external shocks as well as for research to be conducted in other CEE countries due to many common contextual factors that has shaped food practices and institutional arrangements.