Impact of Covid-19 on the consumption expenditure pattern of Rural Households in Villupuram District of Tamil Nadu
K. Rahul and C. Prabakar
Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agriculture, Annamalai University, Chidambaram-608 002 India Email:prvagrieco2023@gmail.com, Contact Number: 8838539211
ABSTRACT
The study was carried out with an overall objective to analyse the consumption expenditure pattern of farm and non-farm sector rural households during the pre Covid-19 period and Covid-19 impacted period in Tamil Nadu. The Villupuram district was purposively selected as the sample district since this district has the highest rural population in Tamil Nadu as per 2011 population census. The study revealed that there was a reduction in rural households’ consumption expenditure during Covid-19 impacted period compared to the pre Covid-19 period. More specifically, the percentage reduction in average consumption expenditure was higher with non-farm sector households than farm sector households. With the estimates of Income elasticity of expenditure, it was inferred that in the farm sector as well as non-farm sector, the significance of expenditure on food and health care got enhanced during Covid-19 impacted period than pre Covid-19 period. The findings in general gave an impression that financially the non-farm sector got affected worse than the farm sector by the Covid-19 epidemic.