CHAPTER ONE.

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Corona virus (COVID 19) is derived from the word ‘corona’ meaning ‘crown’ in Latin. It causes a range of human respiratory tract infections varying from mild cold to severe respiratory distress syndrome. The present novel CoV disease also called as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-CoV-2 and corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging global health threat. The COVID-19 epidemic started from Wuhan city of China towards the end of December 2019 and since then spread rapidly to Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Iran in the initial months. This was followed by wide viral dissemination around the world including Spain, Italy, USA, UAE and the UK (Tang et al.,2020). The WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic outbreak and sporadic human infections have resulted in over 496million confirmed cases and over 6 million deaths presently. 

 Epidemics and pandemics are threats deeply affecting human life and bringing deathly consequences. COVID 19 pandemic has lately been at the top of the global agenda due to its effects. Emerging in Wuhan, China in December 2019, COVID 19 has spread like wildfire and affected 217 countries as of now. According to the data of 17 January 2021, total number of confirmed cases is 92.506.811 and death toll is 2.001.773. USA, India and Brazil take the first three places in terms of number of cases. These countries are responsible for 45.36% of total cases and 37.20% of death toll. On the other hand, 1.558.777 COVID 19 cases and 23.664 relevant deaths were stated in Turkey (World Health Organization Organization on ( WHO,2021 ). This virus significantly threatens those having cardiovascular and chronic lung diseases and death toll increases day by day (McDonald et al.,2020).COVID 19 outbreak influences the social life in various dimensions. Three prominent changes caused by the pandemic throughout the globe are decrease/cessation in/of mobility, increase in uncertainties/instability and new behaviors related to concerns about health. Covid-19 outbreak has shown that the nations have fallen short of dealing with global crises. Although vaccination programs against the virus are implemented all over the world, the rate of full dose vaccination is 6.2%.

 Agricultural production in this period started under the COVID19 restrictions, although the restrictions were slightly reduced. Currently, the government has  tried to fight against the pandemic by taking measures such as social distance, mask wearing, individual and mass isolation and travel restrictions. Numerous problems have arisen and uncertainties have increased throughout the pandemic (Mishra et al., 2021). While the effects of COVID 19 are discussed, boom in global population and access to safe and sufficient food still faces us as one of the most significant problems of this century (Fróna et al., 2019). Although it is always critical, the significance of healthy and sufficient nourishment has been understood more during the pandemic. Today, 820 million people are on the breadline and approximately 2 billion people experience mild and severe food insecurity. The conflicts as well as political and economic instabilities going on at several spots in the world make it difficult to have a stable life. On the other hand, agricultural production is threatened by various factors such as droughts or excessive precipitations, greenhouse effect, misuse of agricultural lands, over-divided land structure,

Agriculture industry is one of the most significant industries of the world with regards to nourishment of people and its commercial value and is deeply related to food safety (Nesheim et al., 2015). (Lopez et al., 2019) during the previous outbreaks such as HIV and Spanish flu, problems such as labour loss due to death, not being able to go to the agricultural land, difficulties in recruiting laborers and problems in accessing to healthy food were experienced ( Obrizan et al., 2020). The greatest difficulties brought by the Covid-19 outbreak are price increases in fresh food prices in large and developing densely-populated cities and disruptions in accessing to staple food (Lal, 2020). However, the scale of actual and prospective damages of COVID 19 in economy is not exactly known as its ending date is not clear as of now. The outbreak affects the countries to different extents depending on endurance of their health systems and no region of the world can be entirely protected currently (Sharma et al., 2020). Social distance and quarantine measures are generally preferred to keep the outbreak under control (Barichello, 2020).

 Some of the decisions/restrictions applied to prevent contagion of the pandemic affect the agricultural activities, agricultural product supply chain and marketing channels (Mishra et al., 2021). These measures also have brought along the risk of losing the informal laborers and seasonal agricultural laborers due to decrease in demand. However, the curfew for those under 20 and over 65 years of age has restricted the mobility of agricultural laborers in these age groups. This restrictions and procedures specific to the pandemic have directly or indirectly affected agricultural activities. The measures implemented against COVID 19 such as social distance and travel restrictions have affected the agricultural activities due to decrease in labour, difficulties in supply of seeds and feeds, failure in marketing perishable fresh products and difficulties in accessing to the end customers (Barichello et al., 2020).

The first case of COVID-19 on the continent of Africa was reported on 14 February 2020 in Egypt By 13 May, cases had been reported in all 54 countries  (WHO) The African Union acted swiftly, endorsing a joint continental strategy in February, and complementing efforts by Member States and Regional Economic Communities by providing a public health platform. The African Union Chairperson, President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, appointed four Special Envoys to mobilize international support for Africa’s efforts to address the economic fallout of COVID-19. (Mundi 2020)The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), established in 2017, is curating real time information, in close collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO). The Africa CDC’s new Partnership on Accelerated COVID-19 Testing (PACT), which aims to test 10 million people within six months, will complement government efforts while building important inroads into promoting knowledge-based pandemic management. WHO support for a significant ramp up to achieve this target will be vital, given that, to date, there is limited availability of test kits across the continent.In 2019 maize price was on a recovery trend after plummeting during the previous 3 years

. The recovery trend was attributed to removal of trade restrictions and good weather. However, the recovery slowed down in 2020 due to trade disruption and weakening demand on the Kenyan side. Interviews of key informants at border markets of Namanga and Horohoro suggest that demand for maize on Kenya’s side might have been affected by declining household incomes and weakening derived demand from the feed industry. Both Kenya and Rwanda have adopted strict lockdown measures to their economies to control COVID 19 including stringent cross-border regulations for truck drivers and traders including those involved in cereal trade causing the slow-down in maize price recovery. Prices of rice have been decreasing steadily over years probably due to increased production in the region.(NAFAKA, 2020) However, the decline in rice price accelerated in year 2020, this reinforces the previous observation of the potential impact of trade disruption due policy and regulatory enforcement in response to the outbreak of COVID 19. It equally affected market margins too.Most African countries at war were asked to make peace  t by the UNO for fear of the pandemic worsening things. This is in line with a research carried out in Cameroon  (Balgah et al,2020)  which states that with an establishment of a Nexus between Anglophone crisis and natural hazard  suggested that an escalation to an unbearable level.

Cameroon is equally not exempted as she is reported by the WHO to have been identified with 108,451 cases since the outbreak of corona virus with 1851 deaths, . In her attempt to limit the spread of COVID 19,the Cameroon government had to lock the borders of her country, pass laws to limit the spread of COVID 19 such as social distancing, stopping schools and  limit number of people who entered public buses,(Mundi,2020) Cameroonians too were afraid of this pandemic and most of them were scared to go out of their homes which drastically affected the agricultural sector such as delaying in planting of seeds because COVID 19 became rampant in Cameroon in the month of March which is the rainy season in Foumban in the West region of Cameroon where everyone plants their crops and there was difficulty in recruiting labour Force to do the planting because many people were scared of the pandemic so there was no technical support and collaboration leading to scarcity of crops, poor harvest, increase in food prices (Atilla et al.,2020). This study is carried out to determine effects of COVID 19 pandemic on agricultural production activities in Foumban.. 

1.2  Statement of research problem

Cameroon just like any other nation expects her economy to experience a boom and the agricultural sector is known to be the backbone Cameroon’s economy. This sector contributes a great percentage of Cameroon’s  gross domestic product (GDP)  (Kimengsi et al., 2020)  .It is not surprising that the government of Cameroon has invested in the agricultural sector by to enhance high yield of crops to reduce postharvest losses and add value to farm products, through programs such as operation green Sahel, opened agricultural schools to train youths on the new techniques of producing crops, organized workshops and seminars, opened schools meant for agriculture and granted subsidies to farmers amongst others to boost the agricultural sector. (Njinyam, 2009).

Unfortunately, the presence of the covid 19 pandemic is likely to have negative impacts on the agricultural sector, thereby jeopardizing all the efforts of the Cameroon government into boosting this sector.  About In addition, about 70% of the Cameroonian population is involved in agriculture .  (Kimengsi et al.,2020)  and since the outbreak of COVID 19, Cameroon has experienced a great number of deaths. Speculations suggest that COVID 19 Cameroon’s economy by led to high postharvest losses and increasing food prices, as a consequence of lockdowns and movement restrictions that limiting collaboration between farmers and disrupt supplies of farm inputs (Balgah et al., forthcoming). While these speculations are made at macro level, the specific impacts on the agricultural sector at micro level are still to be assessed.

Such micro level impact assessments of COVID 19 can provide insights as to its consequences on the smallholder farmers who are the major actors in agricultural production. The focus of this study is to assess the impacts of Covid 19 on the agricultural sector in Foumban in the West region of Cameroon.

 The hypothesis of the study is that COVID 19 has not significantly affected the agricultural income of farmers in the west region of Cameroon. This study is important because although agricultural productivity is declining in the last decades, it still remains an important sector in supporting livelihoods, income and food security of many nations and covid 19 has had devastating impacts on the economy of so many countries. The problem that motivated the study is that agriculture is the backbone of the Cameroonian economy and employs about 70% of the Cameroonian population and since COVID 19 has significantly affected the agricultural sector it is vital to study to which extent it has affected the economy of Cameroon of Cameroon and that no economy can survive without the agricultural sector. 

1.3 Research questions and objectives

1.3.1   Research questions.

Main question

1.What are the impacts of COVID 19 on the agricultural sector in Foumban?

1.3.2 Specific questions.

1. How has COVID 19 affected the agricultural income of farmers in Foumban?
2. How does COVID 19 influence the prices of foodstuffs in Foumban?
3. What are the livelihood impacts of COVID 19 on farmers in Foumban?

1.3.3 Research objective.

1. Main objective

To know assess the impacts of COVID 19 on the agricultural sector in foumban.

Specific objectives

1. To determine how COVID 19 affects the agricultural income of farmers in Foumban?
2. To identify the relationship how between COVID 19 and the prices of agricultural foodstuffs in Foumban.
3. To examine the role of the local government in buffering the livelihood impacts of COVID 19 on farmers in foumban.