Abstract:
COVID-19 is an ongoing threat to all over the world and causes the worst economic
tremor in recent years. Sri Lanka is one of the most vulnerable developing countries
that can be observed a detrimental effect on the economy with a reduction of GDP
growth rate in 2020. As agriculture is the backbone of the Sri Lankan economy, the
study aims to identify the effects of COVID-19 on the agribusiness sector in Sri Lanka
and to examine their coping strategies. The pre-tested questionnaire was sent to
purposively selected 50 agribusiness companies in Sri Lanka and 32 responses
were received within 7 days of data collection. Collected primary data were
analyzed by using descriptive statistics and Chi-square test. According to the
responses, COVID-19 has a negative impact on 59.4% industries and 56.3% of
businesses’ monthly revenue was badly affected. Chi-square test illustrates that the
economic impact of COVID-19 has a significant association with the scale of the
business (p=0.043), while no relationship is shown with the business type
(p=0.186). A significant relationship was exhibited between the impact of COVID 19 on the business’ monthly revenue and its scale (p=0.013). Majority (40.6%) have
no significant changes in their business mind and mainly they have faced labor
shortage problems (65.6%). Further, 46.9% industries were worried about the
impact. The agribusiness sector implemented web advertising (71.9%), e commerce platforms (53.1%), door-to-door delivery mechanism (31.3%) and
explored alternatives/new markets for their products (25%) as the coping
strategies during COVID-19. Moreover, they have implemented sanitation practices
(81.3%) as the employee management strategy. Financial support (75%) helped
them to mitigate the pandemic effect while they have gained the opportunities of
repayment of capital by banks under refinance schemes (65.6%). At present, the
majority of the agribusiness companies (25%) are facing transportation/shipping
problems. The research findings have discovered that the novel pandemic has a
negative impact on Sri Lankan agribusiness industries. Even though the
agribusiness companies have taken immediate measures to withstand this sudden
unexpected risky situation, the government assistance is further required for them
to have continuous business operations and market access.
