Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on cattle farming and its sustainable strategy in Kelantan

The COVID-19 pandemic is a global health threat because of its rapid spread and ability to kill millions of people. The crisis has also disrupted global livelihoods and economic activity. Livestock and food industries are sectors severely affected as a result of the spread of this epidemic. This situation has caused various problems to farmers such as insufficient feed supply and animal needs, animal health disorders, difficulties in selling animals and processing food, labour shortage, and declining income. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cattle production in some selected areas of Kelantan and to develop effective strategies and measures to aid in the recovery of the cattle farming and economic activities. Questionnaires were prepared and interviews were conducted face to face and online to 30 smallholder cattle farmers in Kelantan. Then, data were collected and analysed. The relationship between farmers monthly income and the number of cows per households was investigated. Findings of this survey showed that about 77% of the respondents faced problems on cattle farm management since the COVID-19 pandemic occurred, in which problem for cattle buying faced the most (60% of the respondents). About 57% of the respondents were unable to make a movement to areas to go to the stores that supply animal feed and necessities due to movement control order. Under the unexpected COVID-19 pandemic, about 60% of the respondents claimed that they were not able to buy the feed and necessities in their local areas due to the closed the shop. Due to declining income, about 43% of the respondents faced a lack of budget to buy the feed and other necessities. About 57% of the respondents claimed that input prices increased and interrupted input supplies. In addition, about 33% of the respondents mentioned that they were facing a shortage of worker to run their farm. Furthermore, about 43% of the respondents mentioned that the trend on milk/meat price decreased during COVID-19. Compared to before COVID-19, the consumption trend of meat, milk, and egg dropped during COVID-19, which may be due to the effect of low income. To cope with the above problems, respondents are expected to receive government support in forms of finance, soft loans, agricultural input materials, training and favourable conditions for their production and business.