80pc low-income people see less earnings in one month

More than 80 per cent of rural and low-income population in the country experienced a decrease in earnings from February to March due to COVID-19 pandemic, according to a survey.

Some 93 per cent of respondents expected their income to decrease further in April as most of the economic activities remained shut to help contain the spread of the bug, which infected nearly 12,000 individuals so far, it revealed.

A local research farm LightCastle Partners conducted the survey to analyse the financial impact of virus outbreak among the rural and low-income people.

Among respondents, 25 per cent expected to have no income in April, and 55 per cent had no savings to fall back on, according to the report launched several days ago.

This study was conducted among 160 rural farmers and workers to understand their livelihood implications and find ways to tackle the impact of COVID-19.

There is an alarming lack of alternate sources of income, the report said.

Among the surveyed, 37.30 per cent do not have any arable land available for an alternative source of sustenance.

Out of the factory workers who have left Dhaka, 76.47 per cent mentioned that they do not own any land available for backward or mid-scale farming.

Among respondents, 25 per cent of farmers and rural workers expected to have no income in April, whereas only four per cent in February reported no income.

Daily transport workers like rickshaw pullers, van and truck drivers faced the sharpest drop or 84.78 per cent in income from February to March.

Price shocks across all major food value chains have also greatly affected the farmers in earning a fair value for their output, leading to further drops in earnings.

"Households involved in factory work like apparel and leather, paddy and cereal crops farming, and daily agricultural labour have reduced expenditure by more than 60 per cent (in March) compared to the previous month (February)," the report said.

This decrease in expenditure can be attributable to a more conservative purchasing behaviour among low income families sensing future cash crunch, the report noted.

However, the report also said: "Some households have reported increase in expenditure as they need to purchase more items such as disinfectants, soaps, etc., due to the COVID-19 pandemic."

The report suggested establishing more dynamic food aid distribution systems where the government procures food outputs from areas of high production and redistributes to areas in need.

"The government's procurement of food and agricultural outputs should be directed towards sourcing from farming communities and no syndications to ensure the money spent is cascading down to those in need." The report said.

Although the government has already announced a special stimulus package for farmers, deployment of the fund might get delayed due to bureaucratic red-tape, the report said, adding that the central bank must ensure rapid deployment of farm loans through commercial banks.

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