Assessment of the emerging impact of covid-19 pandemic on small-scale poultry farmers in Zambia

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has been reported to have disrupted the food systems globally, thereby, negatively affecting the production of agricultural commodities. This study was carried out to examine the emerging impact of the pandemic on small-scale poultry farmers in Lusaka Province, Zambia. Questionnaires were administered to 100 farmers in Chongwe rural area (Lusaka city sub-hub) and the data collected were subjected to descriptive and correlation analysis. The research findings revealed that the pandemic has a significant negative impact on the small-scale poultry farmer access to feed availability, vaccines and day old chicks. Similarly, the pandemic had a significant impact on market availability, accessibility and the purchasing power of the consumers. The research also indicated that a significant positive correlation exists between difficulties in accessing essential inputs for poultry productivity and the coping strategy that the poultry farmer adopted. While the government provided financial incentives to some industrial and commercial entities, most small- scale farmers in this study did not benefit from the scheme. This shows that the government is more focused on industrial entities rather than small-scale farmers and producers. The study concluded that farmers experienced a great effect of the pandemic on their poultry business due to the restriction imposed by the government, which caused inaccessibility of input supplies and market for the sale of birds. Mitigating strategies such as facilitating access to production inputs, market linkages and financial assistance (soft loans, grants, relief etc.) for small-scale poultry producers to build a resilient poultry system and cope with the emerging challenges Covid-19 imposed on the poultry industry, are recommended.