The Covid-19 pandemic and small-scale farmers: surpassing or failing?

Abstract

The pandemic of coronavirus Sars-CoV-2 that causes Covid-19 disease has infected a high number of people and caused deaths in Brazil. Thus, this study seeks to identify and understand the impact of this sanitary crisis on small-scale farmers who comprise one of the vulnerable groups of the Brazilian society. We applied questionnaires and gathered reports of participants from different regions and the results indicate that farmers have suffered from the negative impacts of pandemic on multiple dimensions regarding production, commercialization, income, human health, and forms of communication. However, they have been able to overcome some of the challenges brought by the pandemic due to a set of factors, mainly collective actions and solidarity network, individual creative solutions, and public policies.

Keywords
Covid-19 pandemic; Perception of the impacts; Small-scale farmers; Production and commercialization; Public policies