Lockdown due to COVID-19 influenced not only different sectors of Indian economy adversely but different States of India also witnessed sudden shock. agriculture sector was one of the sectors which suffered due to lockdown started on 22nd March 2020.The issues such as delay in the harvesting of the wheat, hurdles in the supply of vegetables and milk towards the urban area created unrest among the people which disrupted Punjab economy as well. The present paper analyze State wise agriculture exports with special reference to Punjab by considering exports of 17 products taken from The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) for the years 2019 and 2020(i.e. April, May, June, July and August). In value terms, Indian agriculture exports were at higher level in April 2019 as compared to the same month in 2020 but after the lockdown period, India recorded agriculture exports in august 2020 at higher level as compared to same month for the year 2019. In quantity terms, Indian agriculture exports were at higher level in the months of April and august 2020 as compared to the same moths in 2019. In India’s exports, States of Gujrat and Maharashtra recorded the highest shares (of more than 20%) for the years 2019-20 and 2020-21. On the one hand, Punjab’s agriculture exports (i.e.17 products) were 230.78 crores for the April 2019 while it was 449.29 crore for the April 2020 (i.e. during lockdown month).On the other hand, Punjab agriculture exports were 1912.57crore for the August 2020 (i.e. after lockdown)as compared to 1130.53crore in August 2019. In quantity terms, agriculture exports of the Punjab were 30016.25 MT in April 2019 and 52960.25 MT in April 2020 while 244096.24 MT were exported from Punjab for the month August 2020 as compared to 138296.68 MT for the same month in 2019. Punjab agriculture exports recorded 3.86 % share in India’s agriculture exports in April 2019 than 7.99 % for the same month in 2020. Also, Punjab recorded 4.02% share in India’s agriculture exports for the month August in 2019 as compared to 5.36% over the same month in 2020. The paper analyzed the growth rates of Punjab’s agricultural exports and compared these month-wise for the lockdown and after lock down period of the years 2019 and 2020. In value terms, 6 products (out of 16 products) registered negative growth rates in 2020 for the months of April to August over the same months in 2019.
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Keywords: Exports, Punjab, Agriculture Products, India, Lockdown, Covid-19.
