Role and Extent of Agricultural Advisory Support for Vegetable Growers amidst the COVID-19 Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic has created far-reaching disruptions across sectors globally, with agriculture facing some of the most immediate and severe consequences. It exposed the vulnerabilities in agricultural food production and value chains affecting the livelihood security of vegetable growers. The present research evaluates the role and extent of agricultural advisory support to the vegetable growers during the COVID-19 pandemic. An ex-post facto research design was followed along with a multistage sampling technique for the selection of 240 vegetable growers across 8 villages in 4 blocks from 2 districts of Odisha. The analysis showed that the majority of the respondents contact input dealers and distributors as the primary source of information, with a pooled mean score of 2.81. Meanwhile, they consider mobile phones as the most accessible ICT tool with a pooled mean score of 2.78, and about 84.00% of the respondents use them regularly for receiving advisory support during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is observed that the majority (79.00%) of the respondents received advice on relief packages, govt. schemes, policies, and programmes as major advisory support on the production activities of vegetables. Whereas, most (81.00%) of the respondents received information on price change and trends in the market as primary advice on the marketing activities of vegetables during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings reveal that input dealers and mobile phones were the key constituents of agricultural advisory, while farmers use mobile phones regularly for receiving the advisory during the pandemic. The research highlights the importance of agricultural advisory support at the time of crisis and seeks to identify systemic gaps, opportunities, and offer recommendations for more advanced, resilient, and accessible during crises for the revitalization of the agricultural sector.