Tenterhooks of corona virus (COVID-19) on food and nutrition security, and economic status of agri-business farmers in Oyo state Nigeria

The scourge of Corona virus has created indelible crisis in the entire world's agricultural food system.A study was carried out to assess the impacts of Corona virus (Covid-19) on the food and nutritional security, and economic status of Agri-business farmers in Oyo State, Nigeria.The demographic study revealed that 85% of the farmers had tertiary education, while 51.4% of the farmers have over ten years' experiences in agri-business.The highest population of the participants can only afford to eat nutritious food once per day.The pandemic reduced people's capacity to access and utilize nutritious food regularly.Majority (98.6%) of the farmers affirmed that agricultural activities contribute to achieving Food and Nutrition security in Nigeria.During the Covid-19 pandemic, there was intensive lockdown with ban on the inter-and intra-state travels.About 66.2% farmers affirmed that Covid-19 pandemic negatively influenced their agribusiness while 62% farmers identified lack of fund to be the major constraint in agri-business at the time of pandemic.It follows that the Covid-19 pandemic negatively affected the livelihood of farmers in terms of food and nutrition security as well as economic and agricultural activities.Conclusively, the tenterhooks of Covid-19 caused panic, agribusiness-crisis, food insecurity, and economic downturn amongst farmers in Oyo state but care must be taken to avoid lockdown which threatens food supply.