THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC CRISIS ON RURAL AGROPRENEURS AND BUSINESS CONTINUITY STRATEGY

Abstract

Research on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis on rural agropreneurs, especially in developing countries, is still lacking. Rural agropreneurs are an important group because they contribute to the national economy, but they have been facing great challenges during the pandemic. The objectives of the current research are to explore the impact of the pandemic on rural agropreneurs and describe the business continuity strategy amid the crisis. This research was carried out at the Rural Community Centres (RCC) of Kg. Jelintoh, Gopeng, Perak, Malaysia. Being the most active RCC in conducting entrepreneurship programmes in the previous year, the researcher decided to choose this centre for the study. Despite their continuous efforts, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected many agropreneurs of the RCC. Hence, this exploration research utilised a qualitative approach, which involved an in-depth interview using a semi-structured interview format with nine rural agropreneurs. They were selected through a non-probability sampling technique, which was a purposive sampling from the list of agropreneurs. Data were analysed using a thematic analysis approach. The result shows that the impacts can be categorised into two main themes, namely business operation and business finance. Besides, two main themes for business continuity strategies were identified, namely marketing strategy and financial strategy. Findings from this study provide good input to relevant agencies in assisting the rural agropreneurs restoring their business.