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IMMANA Fellow Rosemary Isoto has produced a policy brief exploring egg processing as a sustainable market solution for Ugandan poultry farmers during and post COVID-19 pandemic. Funded by the Government of the Republic of Uganda through Makerere University Research and Innovations Fund (RIF).

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Field Notes: Bangladesh in times of COVID-19 and food security implications - Dr. Mohammad Mahfujul Haque, Dr. Abdullah-Al Mamun and Mohammad Mamun-Ur-Rashid

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In this series of blogs, experts from WorldFish's focal countries share their personal insights on the impacts of COVID-19 on fishing, aquaculture, and everyday life.
From food security to supply chains, here are some observations and experiences from Bangladesh, shared by Dr. Mohammad Mahfujul Haque, Professor in the Department of Aquaculture at the Bangladesh Agricultural University, Dr. Abdullah-Al Mamun, Associate Professor in the Department of Fisheries and Marine Science at Noakhali Science and Technology University and Mr. Mohammad Mamun-Ur-Rashid, Feed and Value Chain Specialist at WorldFish Bangladesh.

Preventative measures: A general sense of confusion surrounded the beginning of the pandemic as many people struggled to adjust to the new reality and understand what was permitted. Restaurants, hotels, and businesses selling non-essential goods were shuttered. Public transport was halted.

Social distancing rules proved to be difficult to enforce, and police were tasked with regulating movement on the streets. Police were especially active during the day, but movement by private transport at night was feasible.

For informal workers and those living under the poverty line, staying at home was not always a viable option because of their high dependence on daily wages. Even though measures are now being relaxed, the number of recorded cases has risen as testing capacity has increased. Fear may now be the biggest factor keeping people inside.

Impacts on food environments: The migration of factory workers back to their hometowns, changes in food purchasing habits, and fear of infection all contributed to decreases in consumer demand for food. Many factory workers lost their jobs and headed back to their places of origin, lessening demand for food in some urban areas. As many as eight million people were said to have returned home in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.

Reduced operating hours, fears of infection, and measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19 have all contributed to changing purchasing habits, as the duration and frequency of market trips have fallen. The number of customers present in markets is estimated to have dropped by over a third. Market hours now vary widely across the country due to local restrictions and have a more limited range of opening times than usual.

For shoppers, going to the market now requires preparations such as wearing masks or gloves, and paying closer attention to the surroundings to maintain social distancing. Unnecessary outings are avoided whenever possible. People who might once have visited the market every day are currently only going about once a week. Older people often use rickshaws to go to the market, and their access may be affected by the decreased availability of this form of transport.

Alternative forms of shopping have become more common, such as ordering food by telephone or online with direct-to-door delivery or buying from mobile vegetable or fish vendors at customer's doorstep or balcony. In some areas, markets in small streets have been relocated to more open spaces to facilitate social distancing.

Food availability: Major food shortages have not occurred, but supply chain disruptions have modified the usual foodscape. In Dhaka and Mymensingh, the diversity of fresh produce such as fish, fruits, and vegetables available in the market has decreased significantly, and items appear less fresh and appealing than usual. This reduced variety and diversity may have contributed to falling fruit and vegetable purchases.

The transportation disruptions and shortages of workers have caused supply issues for certain food items. Dr. Haque noted a sharp decline in overall fruit supply in Mymensingh, most notably for lemons, which are usually in high demand but could not be transported into the city from their point of origin, the South of Bangladesh.

Directives were issued early on by the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock to encourage the smooth functioning of the fresh food supply chain. Nevertheless, problems were said to arise when police encountered trucks that were returning empty after making their deliveries. Some trucks have been charged movement fees, which has discouraged transportation across the food sector.

Changes diets: Changes in distribution, supply, and purchasing habits have impacted demand for perishable foods. Conversely, consumption of durable carbohydrates and legumes such as rice, potatoes and pulses may have increased, possibly substituting for animal sourced foods and vegetables. Prices of some imported fruits have gone up, but most locally produced foods are said to have remained affordable.

Poorer people may be eating less than before in absolute terms, while middle-class consumers may be reducing the diversity of foods consumed. Feelings of apprehension about the near future were said to contribute to households reducing portion sizes - for example by spacing out consumption of a single chicken over an entire week or dividing a whole fish into more portions than usual.

It is thought that urban dwellers are substituting more chicken and eggs for fish. Poultry farms are often located closer to consumers in urban or peri-urban areas than natural waterbodies and fish farms, meaning that fish may take longer to reach markets. Supply chains for poultry also appeared to be less affected than those for fish because chickens are more easily harvested, transported, conserved, and processed in the wet market. In addition, Mr. Mamun-U-Rashid noted fish production cycle in ponds could be easily extended while broiler chickens must be sold after about 45 days.

Consumers noted temporary fluctuations in chicken, egg, and fish prices in the early days of the pandemic due to a falling demand before prices gradually returned to normal for most products as measures were relaxed. Despite this, Dr. Mamun noted that some egg, poultry, tilapia and pangasius prices were still lower than usual. An early rumour that the virus could spread through fresh market produce may have negatively impacted the demand for fish and poultry, particularly at the beginning of the crisis. Demand for dried fish, which can be stored without refrigeration for extended periods of time, is said to have increased.

Changes in intra-household dynamics have reportedly led to a reduction of fish consumption. Many fish dishes require a lot of preparation and processing. Urban middle-class families who are typically regular fish consumers often employ a domestic worker to assist with preparing meals, but most of these workers have returned home during the crisis. Cooking now falls largely on the main female caregiver in each household, who does not have time for elaborate dishes. One interviewee noted that, as a result, their household was now eating only one of the four fish dishes regularly consumed. Woman also face additional pressure to supply all their households' meal and snack requirements, as popular outdoor restaurants, cafes, and street food options are closed.

Countering food security threats: In response to the crisis, the Government of Bangladesh has provided food assistance to vulnerable populations. Food assistance most often includes staples and non-perishable items such as potatoes, rice, and oil. It is estimated that the government has subsidized food for around 50 million people and that 5 million poor households received BDT 2500 through mobile banking. However, the relief has not been sufficient for everyone, and Dhaka residents have noticed an increase in the number of beggars.

The government has prioritized rice procurement to assure staple food security. To this end, the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation has purchased rice from farmers at high prices as a form of support. The initiative has not been extended to vegetable, fish, or poultry farmers.

Some political leaders and members of parliament have added fish as one of the relief items for vulnerable populations. A notable example is the food assistance authorized by the Member of Parliament in Noakhali in Southern Bangladesh, Mr. Ekramul Karim Chowdhury. Ten thousand families in his jurisdiction received 2-4kg of fish collected from local markets and adjacent coastal fish landing centres in addition to rice, onions and potatoes. Adding nutrient-dense items, which are usually absent from food aid packages, can help prevent malnutrition in vulnerable households.

In Narsingdi, a local entrepreneur Mr Muklesur Rahman, harvested more than 500 pangasius fish from his own farm for distribution to nearby families. Each family was gifted with a single live fish weighing around 2.5 kg. Mr Rahman said, "poorer people are struggling to get adequate nutrition during this pandemic, and this aid might help them to feed their family at least for a week".

In part 2 of the blog, we will delve deeper into fishery and aquaculture disruptions by examining how COVID-19 impacted the aquatic supply chain, farmers and fishers.

Author

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Field Notes: Bangladesh in times of COVID-19 and food security implications

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In this series of blogs, experts from WorldFish's focal countries share their personal insights on the impacts of COVID-19 on fishing, aquaculture, and everyday life. From food security to supply chains, here are some observations and experiences from Bangladesh, shared by Dr. Mohammad Mahfujul Haque, Professor in the Department of Aquaculture at the Bangladesh Agricultural University, Dr. Abdullah-Al Mamun, Associate ...

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"Going Remote: Learning from Aid Practices in Somalia and Sudan for the Covid-19 Crisis"
By Susanne Jaspars

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Debating Ideas is a new section that aims to reflect the values and editorial ethos of the African Arguments book series, publishing engaged, often radical, scholarship, original and activist writing from within the African continent and beyond. It will offer debates and engagements, contexts and controversies, and reviews and responses flowing from the African Arguments books.

The Covid-19 pandemic has transformed or intensified 'remote' forms of working. Like for much of the world's population, the mobility of aid workers has become restricted and so have the possibilities of distributing material or in-kind aid. At the same time, humanitarian crises and the need for aid will increase; including not only for health care, but also ongoing and new needs for food and economic assistance. Covid-19, as well as measures to control it, will affect access to food, work, markets as well as the production and supply of food. Restricted mobility, closure of borders, and loss of labour due to illness or death will all impact on livelihoods, food security and nutrition.

In conflict-related crises such as Somalia and Sudan, but also many others such as Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, aid agencies have implemented aid programmes remotely for a long time. New technologies for remote programming have enabled aid agencies to reach crisis-affected populations, but at a cost: they rarely contribute to an understanding of the political and economic processes that result in some groups controlling resources and that make others vulnerable. Remote working as the preferred aid option also changes how aid workers perceive realities on the ground, with the danger of losing sight of of local knowledge, priorities and critiques. Building on recent research on food assistance in Somalia and Sudan, this blog draws out three key lessons from experience of remote programming to address this issue:

First, consider the power effects of the infrastructure and logistics even for 'mobile' aid.

Second, maintain context-specific analysis using independent and qualitative methods, to prevent creating 'alternative realities'.

Third, power relations and inequality do not disappear if you do not see them. Active measures need to be taken to make these visible.

Each of these are elaborated on below:

Remote provision of mobile cash transfers and its effects; what do we know?

In places like Darfur, Sudan, and southern Somalia, remote programming started because of security threats to aid workers and denial of access. In Sudan, access to many conflict-affected populations was denied by the former government and in Somalia because of Al-Shabaab's presence. At first, remote programming involved working with more national staff or NGOs than international staff, but today digital technologies are often used for assessments, cash transfers, education and information sharing. The latter is likely to increase with Covid-19, as in-kind aid distributions may increase virus transmission with the physical presence of aid workers, the concentrations of people it creates, and beneficiaries will face restrictions on movement.

In Somalia, mobile money transfers - cash transfers via mobile phone - have become a key part of the economy and of aid provision. In response to food insecurity resulting from Covid-19, the World Food Programme (WFP) has already suggested that 'cash-based transfers (CBT) should be considered as a standard response. CBT can mostly be safely distributed via contactless solutions'. The Cash learning project has similarly reported that organisations are switching from in-kind to cash provision because it 'allows for more remote delivery, less clustering at distribution sites and can reduce transmission risk'.

So what do we know about remotely providing cash and its effects? In Somalia, cash transfers were first scaled up in response to the 2011 famine, using money transfer agents ( Hawala) to provide physical cash. By the time of the 2017 near-famine, this was largely replaced by 'mobile money' via Hormud, a Somali-owned business conglomorate, and through WFP vouchers which are redeemed through a network of over 1000 retailers. In Darfur, vouchers were introduced in 2011, for some of the IDP camps in North Darfur.[1] Evaluations have praised cash transfers for their cost-effectiveness, speed, and the choice they provide for beneficiaries. In both cases, in addition to providing dignity and choice for beneficiaries, cash transfers aimed to strengthen banks, improve market and food systems, and enhance dietary diversity. In Somalia, cash transfers were sometimes linked with promoting social and behaviour change, including child feeding, sanitation and hygiene practices.

Like all forms of assistance, cash programming is subject to diversion and corruption (including bias in issuing contracts, targeting and taxation of beneficiaries) and becomes part of the local political economy. Cash programmes can build up or enforce the power of businesses and local authorities that are involved in its provision, and the nature and effect of this is important to examine. In Somalia, 'mobile money' contributed to the massive growth of a small number of large companies (in particular Hormud), while vouchers increased the power of District authorities and their control over resources. These elements of cash transfers have not yet been explored in Darfur. In addition, food or other goods for crisis-affected people still need to be supplied, even if not directly by humanitarian organisations. In times of acute crisis and food shortage, this is likely to involve large transporters and traders as only they will have the capacity and long-distance contacts. In Sudan, these were often closely linked to the former, highly oppressive, regime. In Somalia, large businesses involved in transport and food trade have been amongst the most wealthy and powerful in the country.

With Covid-19, food supply will likely become an issue, as production decreases, borders close and global supply routes are interrupted. Larger companies will be in a better position to address these constraints and to take advantage of market opportunities when the economy opens up again. Dependence on large companies may be necessary to start with, particularly when lives are at risk. As soon as possible, however, working with a range of smaller transporters and retailers will diffuse both economic and political power. This in turn reduces the potential for an unregulated concentration of power in the hands of small cartel, and the scope for exploitation and abuse. A large number of small retailers, where people can spend their money or voucher, will also be important to minimise crowding.

Remote assessments: be careful not to create an alternative reality

Quantitative indicators, cash transfers, and standard packages of nutrition products and behaviour change are well-suited to remote programming. With face-to-face interviewing and physical aid distribution increasing the risk of virus transmission, the temptation will be to rely exclusively on such methods. They are also, however, likely to create an "alternative reality" if not combined with more detailed and qualitative information gathering and context-specific approaches. This has been evident in both Sudan and Somalia.

In both places aid practices created one reality of technical progress based on a set of new individualised, market-based and remote technologies, which can be contrasted with another reality of ongoing violence and aid manipulation experienced by crisis-affected populations and to some extent known by aid workers. Research on food aid in Sudan suggested that the focus on individual behaviour (feeding, hygiene, coping strategies, "dependency") created a reality in which conflict is invisible and people are malnourished and food-insecure largely due to their own actions. This could also be seen as a fantasy, because it implied denial of ongoing conflict and displacement. At the same time, aid workers knew at some level that the conflict continued to cause displacement and food insecurity, but the impossibility of delivering material aid, their remoteness and the pressure to keep assistance going (and the moral dilemma this created) helped maintain the fantasy. In Somalia, the analogy of front-stage and backstage in the humanitarian theatre, as proposed by Desportes et al. (2019) seemed to work better. Here, new cash transfer and nutritional practices are presented as helping people become resilient on the front-stage, but backstage everyone knows that power remains concentrated within a few actors, and marginalisation and exclusion continue. The difference in the Somali case is that almost all involved in aid had both a backstage and front-stage presence but separation has been necessary to maintain aid programmes. Recent discussions with key stakeholders highlighted the need to bring the two together if malnutrition and food insecurity are to be addressed.

It is important to reveal the ongoing role of politics and power in creating food insecurity and humanitarian crises, including when responding remotely to Covid-19-induced crises. An emphasis on structural causes is particularly important because both current food assistance practices and practices to contain the spread of Covid-19 focus on individual behaviour. As such the risk will be that responsibility or blame will shift from state and international community to individuals (and poor, marginalised and displaced individuals within that). While it may not be possible to conduct extensive qualitative research on the ground, mobile phone or digital networks can be used for in-depth interviews with trusted sources and could be used to interpret the quantitative data collected on a larger scale. The first step is recognising the limitations of a small number of quantitative indicators and of technological solutions. A second step could be to convene a Somali or Sudanese panel of experts to conduct and discuss and triangulate with in-depth interviews.

Risk of maintaining inequality and of hiding poverty and conflict

Any crisis has the potential to increase inequality; it tends to hit the poor or marginalised hardest and those with power will find ways to benefit. Both Sudan and Somalia are already highly unequal societies. In Sudan, an Arab elite has dominated government and access to resources, in Somalia, resources are concentrated within a political and business elite consisting mostly of historically dominant clans. Both have a long history of conflict and famine with winners as well as losers, and a long history of aid practices feeding into unequal power relations and conflict. Food assistance has frequently excluded the most vulnerable or crisis-affected, or not reached them with sufficient assistance, and yielded benefits for the more powerful such as the traders and transporters - and their political connections - as indicated in the first section above.

The Covid-19 pandemic is already expected to have a disproportionate effect on the poor, the homeless, and the displaced. In Somalia, these are also the traditionally most marginalised groups and in Darfur, they include those who opposed the former regime and targeted most severely by its counter-insurgency operations. Many have been dispossessed of their land, displaced, and form a marginal and precarious labour force. They are also concentrated in urban areas, where they live in overcrowded camps with often poor services; all of which makes them more vulnerable to the Covid-19 virus.

The risk is that a Covid-19 humanitarian response will exacerbate these inequalities, just like past humanitarian assistance operations have done. Preventing this will mean first of all making inequalities visible by monitoring and analysing effects of aid on power relations. Remote and quantitative techniques will not reveal these power dynamics and just because existing techniques do not allow you to see the political economy of aid does not mean it is not there. Many Somali and Sudanese aid workers and analysts know this - but need an incentive to share their knowledge, rather than being disempowered by remote and top-down responses. Past epidemics have shown that local knowledge is essential in designing an effective response. As in other complex crisis situations, there will be no easy solution, and every possibility (for example more decentralised voucher systems or more aid as mobile cash transfers) will involve some moral losses. As Hugo Slim writes in his book on Humanitarian Ethics, it is essential for humanitarian organisations to go through a process of deliberation, weighing up the humanitarian gains and moral losses for each option, and to make sure that as much information as possible is available on which to base this deliberation. As such it may be possible to have a compassionate and human response even when using remote technologies.
End Notes
[1] Vouchers were introduced in other parts of Sudan but access was not as limited as in Darfur.

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Going Remote: Learning from Aid Practices in Somalia and Sudan for the Covid-19 Crisis - African Arguments

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Debating Ideas is a new section that aims to reflect the values and editorial ethos of the African Arguments book series, publishing engaged, often radical, scholarship, original and activist writing from within the African continent and beyond. It will offer debates and engagements, contexts and controversies, and reviews and responses flowing from the African Arguments books.

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Paper from Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research on post-lockdown urban food markets in India: http://www.igidr.ac.in/pdf/publication/WP-2020-017.pdf

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Resources from the Micronutrient Forum

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COVID-19 Resource Hub - Micronutrient Forum

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COVID-19 and Micronutrients Resource Hub The Micronutrient Forum is aggregating updates, guidance, blogs, opinion pieces and peer-reviewed articles relevant to micronutrients and the COVID-19 pandemic. There is currently a lot of information being shared about micronutrient nutrition and the pandemic and it can be challenging to quickly identify credible information and insights.

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Communities with tradtional forest-based livelihoods based upon swidden agriculture, hunting, fishing and wild foods have been remarkably resilliant. Meanwhile in towns rationing has begun, preventing mobile traders buying in markets for sale in villages with other livelihoods such as oil palm.

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Webinar on maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition in the time of COVID-19 hosted by ANH Academy and the MARCH Centre at LSHTM

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Virtual - time indicated in BST (London time)

Add to Calendar 05/05/2020 12:00 05/05/2020 13:15 Europe/London Webinar: Maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition in the time of COVID-19: implications for action and research Hosted by ANH Academy and MARCH Centre. See more details here: Zoom (details will be shared before 5 May) https://bit.ly/ANH-MNCH-COVID

COVID-19 is placing unprecedented strain on health and food systems, threatening decades of progress toward equity, health and nutrition for women and children across the world. From ensuring early initiation of breastfeeding and adequate nutrition for women and children in the first 1,000 days, to routine immunisation and mental health programmes, COVID-19 poses myriad risks to essential interventions and quality of care across the world.

How should communities of research, practice and policy respond to this crisis and what steps are being taken by funders and multilateral organisations to better mitigate its effects?

Join us for a webinar to chart the way forward for maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition. Speaker remarks will be followed by a 30 minute Q&A/community discussion. This webinar will be recorded and uploaded afterward.

Moderator:
Speakers:

Dr. Laurence Grummer-Strawn, WHO
Coordinator of the Food and Nutrition Actions in Health Systems Unit

Dr. Joy Lawn, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Professor of Maternal, Reproductive and Child Health

Anuradha Narayan, UNICEF China
Chief of Health and Nutrition/WASH

This webinar is co-hosted by the Agriculture, Nutrition and Health (ANH) Academy and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) Centre for Maternal, Adolescent, Reproductive, & Child Health (MARCH).

Time:

7:00am - 8:15am New York/Washington, D.C.
11:00am - 12:15pm Accra
12:00pm - 1:15pm London
1:00pm - 2:15pm Geneva/Rome
2:00pm - 3:15pm Addis Ababa
4:30pm - 5:45pm New Delhi
7:00pm - 8:15pm Beijing

Share on social media:

Format:

The webinar will last 75 minutes, including talks from each speaker and an interactive audience Q&A session.

Speaker information:

Dr. Laurence Grummer-Strawn, WHO
Coordinator of the Food and Nutrition Actions in Health Systems Unit

Laurence Grummer-Strawn is the coordinator of the Food and Nutrition Actions in Health Systems unit at the World Health Organization. Until December 2014, he served as chief of the Nutrition Branch at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Having earned his PhD from Princeton University, he worked at CDC for over 23 years, in the areas of Reproductive Health and Nutrition. He is an epidemiologist who has published over 150 scientific publications. He is recognized internationally for his work on vitamin and mineral deficiencies, breastfeeding policy, and development of both the CDC and the WHO Growth Charts. At WHO, Dr. Grummer-Strawn oversees micronutrient malnutrition, undernutrition and infant and young child feeding. He leads the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative, the Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes, and the Global Breastfeeding Collective.

Dr. Joy Lawn, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Professor of Maternal, Reproductive and Child Health

Joy has lived and worked in many African countries, including as a lecturer and neonatalogist in Ghana in the 1990s. She shifted to public health and global estimation working at the WHO Collaborating Center, CDC Atlanta, USA (1998-2001), and then at the Institute of Child Health, London, UK (2001-2004), completing a Masters of Public Health at Emory University, Atlanta and a PhD in perinatal epidemiology at University College London, UK. For ten years she was Director Global Evidence and Policy for Saving Newborn Lives (SNL) programme of Save the Children (Gates Foundation funded) working with governments and partners to scale up and evaluate newborn care including leadership in Lancet Every Newborn series and Action Plan, leading to the first SDG on neonatal survival.

Anuradha Narayan, UNICEF China
Chief of Health and Nutrition/WASH

Dr. Suneetha Kadiyala, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Associate Professor of Nutrition-Sensitive Development

Suneetha is an Associate Professor in Nutrition-Sensitive Development at LSHTM. She is a nutritionist with research interests focusing on the intersection between agriculture/food systems and food security, gender and nutrition. Her expertise spans programme design, operations research and theory-based complex programme impact evaluations; and innovative methods and metrics in agriculture-nutrition research. She is the Principal Investigator of IMMANA (Innovative Methods and Metrics for Agriculture and Nutrition Actions), a DFID-funded partnership to stimulate the development and application of scientifically sound methods and metrics in agriculture, health and nutrition research. IMMANA includes the Agriculture, Nutrition and Health (ANH) Academy, a global network of researchers working at the nexus of agriculture, nutrition and health.

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Webinar: Maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition in the time of COVID-19: implications for action and research

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Virtual - time indicated in BST (London time) Add to Calendar 05/05/2020 12:00 05/05/2020 13:15 Europe/London Webinar: Maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition in the time of COVID-19: implications for action and research Hosted by ANH Academy and MARCH Centre.

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COVID-19 PROBABLE IMPACTS ON ETHIOPIAN AGRICULTURE
AND POTENTIAL MITIGATION AND ADAPTATION MEASURES: NO FOOD-NO HEALTH-NO LIFE

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Piece by Dr Sinead Boylan:

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The recent ABARES insight report tells us that us Aussies have nothing to worry about when it comes to food security. Yes, we have plenty of food. Australia exports about 70% of it's agricultural production and only about 10 per cent of the household budget is spent on imports.

However, the report and associated media coverage are misleading. Why? While Australia has plenty of food, it is far from food secure. "Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life". ( World Food Summit, 1996). This is currently not the case.

The ABARES report focuses on food availability at a national level. It doesn't consider household food security and therefore does not consider the 24% of indigenous Australians who are food insecure. I suspect that this is much more given that the Australian Government statistics on food insecurity is over 20 years old. Back then, it also estimated that 23% of unemployed people were food insecure. This figure is expected to skyrocket - as a result of Covid-19, it is expected that 1.4 million Australians who will be soon looking for work.

I am lucky enough to live in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney where people are stockpiling brown rice and fettuccine - maybe to replace postponed trips to private villas in the Cinque Terra and Ko Phi Phi. I am struggling to think of any other reason. We live so far removed from the folk (many of whom put the food on our tables) who travel 4 hours to a major supermarket only to be told they can buy one item per product. Bulk buying in their local grocery store is not an option. Their local grocery stores are not filled with shelves of organic 90% chocolate, Mediterranean green olives or kombucha. Their stores are filled with cheap soft drinks, poor quality fruit and vegetables, and where products have been reported to be up to 68% more expensive than their city counterparts. What will happen when all of this is over? Will their local grocery stores even still exist? The future of long-term food security is bleak.

As if this wasn't bad enough, we seriously need to consider the impacts of another global pandemic which has been currently sidelined - climate change. Climate change will impact our food security as discussed in my contribution to the MJA-Lancet Countdown Report on Health and Climate Change. Climate change may exacerbate food insecurity in Australia through direct (eg, flood damage to crops) and indirect mechanisms such as reduced crop nutrients (eg, protein, iron and zinc) due to increased carbon dioxide (CO2) levels and scarcity-related food price increases.

The aim of this article is not to highlight the extent of food insecurity in Australia - the figures say it all. Nor is the aim to spiral people into a panic. We need to be thinking long-term about our food security in Australia. We need to think remote, rural and urban. We need to think from paddock to plate. We need to think local, national and international. We need to think growing, ageing and more diverse populations. The current pandemics we are experiencing now may pass if we work collectively towards a better future - for all people and for the planet. It is vital that we start equipping ourselves for the next pandemic. Building healthy, resilient food systems would be a good starting point.

Published By

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Australia may be the land of plenty, but it is still food insecure

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The recent ABARES insight report tells us that us Aussies have nothing to worry about when it comes to food security. Yes, we have plenty of food.

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Resources from Food & Business Knowledge Platform

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As the impact of COVID-19 is growing and affecting food systems globally, the short and long term consequences of this crisis for SDG2 are becoming increasingly visible. Countries, governments, research and aid organizations as well as businesses are all taking action to prevent food systems from breaking down, and in the process create and share a great variety of information. As a knowledge brokering organization, the Food & Business Knowledge Platform feels that one of the ways in which we can contribute to these efforts is to provide insight into key sources of information.
This article therefore gives an overview of key resources related to the COVID-19 impacts on Food and Nutrition Security. These resources are being continuously updated as more research and information become available. If you feel a critical resource is missing from this list, please let us know (

*protected email*).

Overview of key sources

Research and resources

CGIAR - evidence-based advice and recommendations on the Covid-19 crisis: Collection of latest research and analysis on COVID-19 to support authorities and the public in making informed decisions during the crisis. See also the CGIAR statement on the Covid-19 crisis.

IFPRI - Resources and Analyses on the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic: IFPRI, one of the CGIAR research centres, curates a special series of blog posts analyzing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on national and global food and nutrition security, poverty and development.

UNSCN Resource list on food systems and nutrition responses: Contributing to the coronavirus pandemic response, the UNSCN has compiled a list of available resources and key readings with a focus on nutrition and food systems.

FAO - resources, information and policy tools on Covid-19 response: Provides a webpage with a collection of ongoing investigations and critical knowledge on food and agriculture in relation to COVID-19. FAO also provides a compilation of policy responses with their pros and cons for agricultural and food systems.

SDG2 Advocacy Hub - SDG2 & Covid-19 reading list: Providing a number of thought pieces highlighting the impact of COVID-19 on food, food systems and more.

Nutrition Connect - latest news and views on Covid-19 and food systems: Brings together news and resources related to the risks, responses and impact of COVID-19 on food systems and nutrition. Providing a blog series to shine light on the threats and opportunities for nutrition and food systems curated by Lawrence Haddad, Jess Fanzo and Corinna Hawkes.

Early warning and food security monitoring systems

Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC): IPC report standardizes monitoring of acute food insecurity, chronic food insecurity and acute malnutrition for most African and Asian countries.

FAO Early Warning - Early Action (EWEA) System: FAO's EWEA team uses both FAO and external early warning sources to monitor main risks to agriculture and food security, publishing the findings in quarterly EWEA reports.

USAID Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS Net): Provides evidence-based analysis to help decision-makers and relief agencies plan for and respond to humanitarian crises through monthly reports. FEWS Net announced that it is monitoring the multiple impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on acute food security in countries where it operates.

IFPRI - Food Security Portal: Brings together international, regional, and country-level data, news, and research aimed at meeting countries' immediate food security needs, as well as building long-term global food security Excessive Food Price Variability Early Warning System.

FAO - Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS): Issues regular analytical and objective reports on prevailing conditions and provides early warnings of impending food crises at country or regional level.

Food Security and Nutrition Working Group: This coordination platform co-chaired by IGAD, FAO, WFP monitors the food security situation in central and eastern Africa. It has initiated a monitoring report that follows impacts of Covid-19 on food security globally and in the east African region.

Interactive maps

WFP - Hunger Map: Map that is monitoring and capturing the evolution of COVID-19 outbreaks in countries, enabling real time monitoring of the impact of COVID-19 on food security and supply chains. It can serve as a means to capture and signal deteriorating circumstances in countries across a variety of indicators.

ANH Academy - Global food systems perspectives on Covid-19: An interactive map that provides resources around COVID-19 and food systems, focusing on experiences, perspectives, opportunities and questions from researchers around the world about the impact of COVID-19 on food systems, agriculture and nutrition.

General

Partos - Kennisportal Corona: The Dutch membership body for organizations working in international development has composed an action plan with its members last March responding to the COVID-19 crisis. This page provides updates on current actions, knowledge and other developments.

OECD - Covid-19 policy hub: The OECD is compiling data, analysis and recommendations on a range of topics to address the emerging health, economic and societal crisis. Beyond immediate responses, the content aims to provide analysis on the longer-term consequences and impacts, paving the way to recovery with coordinated policy responses across countries.

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Key sources on COVID-19 impact on Food and Nutrition Security

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As the impact of COVID-19 is growing and affecting food systems globally, the short and long term consequences of this crisis for SDG2 are becoming increasingly visible. Countries , governments, research and aid organizations as well as businesses are all taking action to prevent food systems from breaking down, and in the process create and share a great variety of information.

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A pandemic-driven food crisis in Africa can be prevented

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We have only just begun to see the far-ranging consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic around the world. Chief among those is the threat of a food crisis of unprecedented magnitude.

Unless measures are taken fast to keep global food supply chains operational and to mitigate the pandemic's impacts across the food system, we will see rapid increases in hunger, particularly in low-income countries of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Last month, I returned to the United States from Rwanda, where the pandemic forced me to abandon my research with farmers on improving the availability and affordability of nutritious food. It may be months or even years before that and other promising agricultural research to combat hunger and malnutrition can resume.

In the meantime, those farmers and millions more in low-income countries are among those most at risk of not being able to work their land and produce food. They face the dual crisis of a deepening pandemic and already high levels of food insecurity. Of the 257 million hungry people in Africa, the majority live in rural areas.

As African leaders scramble to respond to the coronavirus outbreaks in their countries, they have to pay particular attention to farming communities and make sure that their food production remains unhindered.

Pandemic threats to the food supply

African countries are currently focusing their efforts on blocking the transmission of COVID-19, but they also need to think about how their actions affect food security today and in the future. This crisis is affecting workforces, transportation systems and supply chains - the very basis of how our food gets from field to fork.

Early signs show that the pandemic could severely disrupt both food supply and demand. Disruptions could occur as people who work in the food economy - from farmers to processors, to truck drivers and dock workers - are forced to stay home from work due to either quarantine or illness. This could result in greater food loss and waste, defaults on credit payments, and a rising cost of doing business.

If severe illness spreads widely in rural areas of Africa, where small-scale farmers produce of the food consumed, food production may plummet. Farmers and rural communities are highly vulnerable to the disease. Many rural communities lack basic infrastructure for sanitation and shortages of clean water challenge the all-critical need for good hygiene. Underlying medical conditions, which in Africa may include prevalent tropical diseases and malnutrition, could increase vulnerability to the disease.

During the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, more than 40 percent of the agricultural land in affected countries went uncultivated. Small-scale farmers were unable to work their land, sell their products, or buy seeds and other essential inputs.

Today, food demand is suffering whiplash because of the COVID-19 pandemic. On the one hand, the loss of jobs and income is weakening purchasing power, thereby limiting demand - a trend which is likely to accelerate.

On the other hand, panic purchases of food - like those recently witnessed in Rwanda, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and many other countries - are already causing localised price hikes. This kind of volatility and unpredictability in food demand could trigger shortages and uncontrolled food price inflation.

How to prevent a food crisis

When panic buying erupted in Rwanda, the government took action. On March 16, Rwanda became the first African country to regulate food prices . It set fixed prices for 17 food items, including rice, sugar and cooking oil. South Africa subsequently imposed regulations that will limit price hikes and product stockpiling.

The African Union should urge all governments to follow Rwanda and South Africa's lead with price controls to reassure consumers and stop the spread of food price hikes. The extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic affects food markets is conditional upon countries staying calm, even in the face of shocks to the food supply chain.

Countries should avoid protective beggar-thy-neighbour food policies, such as trade barriers enacted through tariffs or quotas in these times of crisis.

Instead, they should focus on maintaining the market flow of agricultural inputs, food, and feed by reducing import tariffs and value-added taxes and allowing the cross-border transport of food to continue despite border closures.

Governments at all levels should recognise agricultural food system operations and research as essential and provide everyone involved with the protection and support that they need to continue to work, following safety and health protocols. Rwanda, for example, has designated agriculture an essential economic activity that must continue regardless of other restrictions on mobility or workplace activity.

As the COVID-19 pandemic takes hold in the world's poorest countries, policy solutions and global assistance must align to support the most vulnerable countries and populations. The protection of food security is inseparable from actions to protect the health, family welfare, commerce and other sectors. It must be urgently integrated into all COVID-19 planning and policy.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Cedric Habiyaremye

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A pandemic-driven food crisis in Africa can be prevented

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We have only just begun to see the far-ranging consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic around the world. Chief among those is the threat of a food crisis of unprecedented magnitude. Unless measures are taken fast to keep global food supply chains operational and to mitigate the pandemic's impacts across the food system, we will see rapid increases in hunger, particularly in low-income countries of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

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Piece from ORF by R.V. Bhavani, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation

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One can foresee many challenges as farmers and farm labourers set out to rebuild their lives and livelihoods.

The national lockdown from 25 March 2020 has severely affected lives and livelihoods across rural India. Agriculture and allied sectors employ more than half of the workforce in the country. A majority of India's farmers (85%) are small and marginal farmers with less than two hectares of land. More than nine million active fishers directly depend on fisheries for their livelihood, 80% of which are small scale fishers; the sector as a whole employs over 14 million people.

The rabi crop stood ready for harvest in many fields when the COVID-19 crisis brought everything to a halt; this is also the time for harvest of plantation crops like pepper, coffee, banana. In the aftermath of the lockdown, harvest of the rabi crops has been delayed due to non-availability of labour, machinery (harvesters, threshers, tractors), transport facilities and restrictions on movement; farmers of perishable commodities like fruits, vegetables, and flowers in particular have been incurring losses. This is the peak flowering season when the demand is also high. Many small farmers in Tamil Nadu who cultivate flowers as a cash crop in their farming system, have incurred loss in what would otherwise have been the period of peak earning from sale of flowers. Harvest of plantation crops in Kerala and Tamil Nadu has been similarly delayed, affecting the cash flow of farmers and farm labour. Agriculture labourers are not able to go to work due to lack of transport. Labour work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) has stopped.

Egg prices crashed to an all time low of INR 1.95/egg and poultry farmers in Namakkal - the poultry hub of India, were left with huge stock of unsold eggs. Small dairy and poultry farmers engaged in contract farming in Tamil Nadu have faced a major loss with many private contract firms refusing to lift the produce. Fishers haven't been able to go out to sea since end of March and are subsequently worried about the 45-day annual fishing ban in line with the fish breeding season, coming into force along the east coast from mid-April. Both brackish and fresh water aquaculture farmers have also been affected with harvest delayed due to labour non-availability, market closure and movement restrictions; exports of shrimps to Europe and the US has stopped and local fish prices have fallen leading to loss of income.

Tribal communities are amongst the most vulnerable in terms of food and nutrition security as seen in national statistics. In addition to farm based activities, the collection and sale of non-timber forest produce like kendu leaves and mahua flowers by tribal communities in Odisha has been badly affected by the lockdown, with no collection agents coming and markets closed. The informal sector is a major source of credit in rural India, and borrowing at high rates of interest is expected to increase to tide over the crisis. There are reports that market agents are charging 24 per cent interest for advance credit to be paid after harvest of flowers/vegetables, which farmers are unable to repay due to disruption of the supply chain.

While the government announced several measures, including exemption of agriculture and fisheries from lockdown restrictions in late March, there has been lacuna in delivery and implementation at the ground level. There have also been gaps in reaching relief in cash and kind to the poor, needy and vulnerable as seen in media reports. Several civil society organisations and NGOs with field presence have been engaged in providing needed support that is possible under the circumstances The M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation for instance, has been engaged in providing relief to the communities in these difficult times, through use of technology to provide crop advisories, conduct phone-in programmes and facilitate aggregation and sale of produce through farmer producer organisations (FPOs) promoted by us. Awareness programmes on COVID-19 and precautionary measures to be taken have been conducted in many villages.

Guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India on 15 April 2020 following extension of lockdown till 3 May 2020, exempt agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, poultry and fishery, and allied activities from lockdown restrictions; labourers can go to work, markets are to open, procurement is to happen and agri-input shops and agro-processing centres are to function. MNREGS work will also commence. Effective dissemination of the guidelines and implementation on the ground will be very crucial, as farmers harvest the rabi crop and start preparations for the kharif season.

Going forward, one can foresee many challenges as farmers and farm labourers set out to rebuild their lives and livelihoods. Migrant labourers who have managed to return will not be able to go back immediately. Some may not wish to go back also, given the travails many may have endured following the lockdown. There is a need for both relief and rehabilitation measures, to help the affected and pick the threads again, overcome the loss sustained and rebuild their lives. Precautionary measures like maintaining social distancing and hand washing will have to continue as COVID-19 continues. Proactive measures by the state with humanitarian perspective are called for as we begin operating in a 'new normal': more relief in kind (e.g. making the PDS universal, ensuring whoever is needy gets the necessary support and is not left starving due to bureaucratic hurdles like lack of ration card); and cash (e.g. increasing the amount under the PM Samman Kisan Nidhi from the present INR 6,000/- to INR 15,000/- and releasing the first instalment before kharif); measures to curb charging of exorbitant interest by informal sector lenders, waiver of interest for the quarter on term loans and overdraft agriculture and MSME accounts; compensating loss incurred due to damage to perishable crops like flowers, fruits, vegetables and fish; and enlarging the scope of MNREGS to include harvest of crops on farmers' fields by labour and value addition to produce by women.

The piece draws on assessment of the ground situation by the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation. Additional information available at:

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mahatma gandhi national rural employment guarantee scheme

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Impact of COVID-19 on rural lives and livelihoods in India | ORF

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One can foresee many challenges as farmers and farm labourers set out to rebuild their lives and livelihoods. The national lockdown from 25 March 2020 has severely affected lives and livelihoods across rural India. Agriculture and allied sectors employ more than half of the workforce in the country.

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"What a visit to an Indian market reveals about the danger – and importance – of food markets" by Bhavani Shankar in Geographical Magazine

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For Bhavani Shankar, a trip to an Indian vegetable market revealed many issues of health and safety, but also highlighted the importance of such places for global nutrition

In April 2018, I visited a major wholesale vegetable market in Bihar, India, as part of fieldwork for a research project. I had expected the market to be busy and chaotic, but was not entirely prepared for the hellish landscape that greeted me: open sewers, free-wandering domestic animals, rotting piles of vegetable refuse and smoke from burning plastic hanging in the air. In short, optimal conditions for foodborne hazards. At the same time, however, this market was an important node for distributing vegetables throughout a region where the vitamins, minerals and disease fighting properties provided by vegetables are vital for the health of the population.

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Food markets have not had a good press in recent times. SARS and bird flu outbreaks in the 2000s have been linked to 'wet' markets, where animals are butchered, stored and sold. The possibility that the current outbreak of Covid-19 emerged at a seafood market where wild animals were being sold poses major questions about how food markets should be governed. In contemplating this, it is important to keep in mind that food markets are integral to delivering nutritious food to large populations. Markets already deliver the vast bulk of foods consumed around the world, even in very low income settings and amongst agricultural households. From South Asia to much of Sub-Saharan Africa, more than 75 per cent of food consumption is derived from the market.

There is increasing evidence indicating the importance of well-functioning food markets in the nutrition of low income populations. In Ethiopia, closeness to markets has been shown to improve the diversity of diets and be protective against severe weight loss in children. Even in rural Afghanistan, where harsh winters, difficult terrain, poor infrastructure and conflict pose major challenges to markets, our research has found nutritious foods to be overwhelmingly sourced from local markets rather than from what households produce themselves.

Markets are inherently 'scalable', reaching large numbers of people with relative ease, given that they emerge from the natural human proclivity to buy, sell and exchange. For the same reason, they are cost-effective, not typically requiring large, expensive interventions or policies to make nutritious foods available. Thus, food markets have a major role to play in global efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal Number 2 which aims to 'End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition...'

As the world continues to urbanise and the connection between food production and consumption becomes ever more tenuous, the functioning of food markets, both as institutions as well as physical places of exchange, is deserving of serious thought in research, policy and practice. Governing the marketplace to minimise foodborne hazards is a key aspect of this agenda. This may include consideration of food safety in spatial planning and design of market infrastructure; introducing and enforcing regulations concerning produce traded in markets and how they are handled; and understanding behavioural patterns of market actors and delivering appropriate communication and training.

The WHO has pioneered the concept of 'healthy food markets' which incorporates such considerations and has piloted this across the world. The aftermath of Covid-19 may be the appropriate juncture to scale up such efforts. There is a need to invest further in understanding and minimising foodborne hazards so that food markets around the world can fulfil their potential in fighting malnutrition.

Bhavani Shankar is a professorial research fellow at the Institute for Sustainable Food, University of Sheffield

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What a visit to an Indian market reveals about the danger - and importance - of food markets - Geographical Magazine

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For Bhavani Shankar, a trip to an Indian vegetable market revealed many issues of health and safety, but also highlighted the importance of such places for global nutrition In April 2018, I visited a major wholesale vegetable market in Bihar, India, as part of fieldwork for a research project.

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Piece from Nutrition Connect by Martin Fregene and Atsuko Toda, African Development Bank.

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But Africa is coming up with its own solutions for these challenges, with the African Development Bank being prominently involved. To address the threat of food security, several short-term measures are being taken:

Medium to longer-term food security interventions include:

Provision of recovery strategy support to key supply chain players like logistics companies and anchor farmers.

Strengthening food supply chain resilience via efficient production, processing and value addition.

Enforcing food safety, improved food quality and traceability policies in the post-coronavirus period.

Promoting digitalization and e-commerce in markets hit by COVID-19.

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Mitigating COVID-19's impact on Africa's food systems | Nutrition Connect

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We are facing great uncertainty on the African continent. The global spread of COVID-19 and the rising number of coronavirus cases in Africa are fueling anxiety about negative economic growth, failing healthcare and collapsing food systems. We are already grappling with a locust outbreak in the Horn of Africa, drought and flood extremes due to climate change and increasing food importation costs of more than $47 billion in 2019.

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On 23 March 2020, the Government of India declared a complete lockdown for three weeks in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. All enterprises, except essential ones, have been closed and 1.4 billion people are confined to their homes for 21 days. Even the trains are not running. This is an unprecedented shock to the economy.

How is this lockdown affecting different parts of India's food system right now and what are the prospects over the next few months? We gathered a group of researchers and practitioners from diverse sectors such as development research, banking, fintech, microfinance, international trade, dairy, logistics, and warehousing to discuss these questions and to make sense of arguably the largest economic experiment in human history. The participants shared their understanding of what was happening on the ground in different parts of India's and the world's food system along with the information gleaned from bankers, entrepreneurs, researchers, and policymakers in their individual networks. This article summarises the discussion.
Lockdown and Food Supply Chains
Food is on the essential commodities list and hence exempt from movement restrictions. However, in many places, local police and administration are prohibiting the movement of trucks and carts carrying essential food items. As a result, perishables are not reaching mandis, processing units and households. Producers and traders are losing money as are the processors, transporters, and consumers. The disruption in the value chain is further aggravated by instinctive hoarding.

The split chickpea (chana dal) market in Bihar is a good illustration of the problems that can arise due to transport restrictions. The wholesale price of chana dal has increased by 20% from `52 to `65 per kilogram in the last few days in Samastipur, Bihar. This is partly because the trucks bringing new stocks of chickpea from central India are stuck for days at the state border. The artificial scarcity is encouraging hoarding by local traders as well as consumers. The local administration is trying to impose price controls to address this problem. However, experience suggests that price controls seldom work. Letting markets operate by removing or minimising disruptions is a much better solution.

If the supply chain is not restored within a few days, there will be an increase in panic buying by households and more hoarding by traders. The disruption will be more severe for perishable foods like milk, fruits, and vegetables. Whether the central and state governments can restore at least 70%-80% of normal levels of supply, as claimed, in the next few days through better coordination across states and clear messaging to district, state, and local administrations, is yet to be seen.
Disappearing Labourers
Paldaars (load bearers) are often gaunt men and women, who carry loads heavier than themselves on their backs. They are seldom mentioned in academic studies of value chains but are crucial to the smooth functioning of India's overall food system. Be it mandis, processing units or ports, their backbreaking effort is needed everywhere. Paldaars who are migrants have gone home after the Janata Curfew and even local paldaars are unable to show up at their workplaces due to the lockdown and restriction of movement. Even if the flow of goods is restored, workers are urgently needed in markets, factories, warehouses and ports.

Rice mills are closed in Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. So are other processing units. There are reports that tonnes of fruits and vegetables are rotting in the Azadpur mandi-the largest produce market in India. Millions of tonnes of rice and palm oil are traded through India's ports, but these ports are not currently working. Loading of goods at ports is labour-intensive work and labourers are missing. Without the paldaars and the clearing house agents, the whole business of export and import of food commodities cannot run. Ships and trucks are waiting at sea and in the harbours. Losses are mounting by the day, and in many places, port authorities have invoked the force majeure clause. Traders' losses will be passed on to both producers and consumers.

India of course is not the only country facing these problems. There are similar disruptions in the ports, and further up the supply chain, in countries like Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kenya, and Malaysia. India is less vulnerable to these disruptions in international food trade in comparison to the other nations like Bangladesh, Nepal, Kenya, etc, as India's trade dependence-measured as the ratio of the total value of exports and imports of food items to the agricultural gross domestic product (GDP)-is comparatively smaller. India's large buffer stocks of rice, wheat, and to some extent pulses, will also provide a cushion against trade shocks. However, also India is still heavily dependent on the import of edible oil from Indonesia and Malaysia.
Credit Freeze
The financial sector in India has been under stress for a while now. Credit flow from banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) for new projects was already slow. Now the lockdown and the associated fear of disruptions in cash flows and the collapse of demand have led to a complete credit freeze. Some banks are even rolling back recently sanctioned loans for new projects. All major financial institutions have become overly risk-averse. Everyone is trying to avert losses, and no one is going after profits.

Even as non-performing assets (NPAs) were rising elsewhere, the repayment rates remained high in the microfinance sector. After the Janata Curfew, repayment rates have plummeted in this sector due to: (i) the lenders being unable to reach their clients to collect the outstanding cash; and (ii) people wanting to keep cash at home in this time of crisis. Anticipating higher cash needs and poorer earning prospects in the days to come, all clients have started renegotiating repayment schedules. For these very same reasons, the business activity of fintech companies, that raise deposits from small businesses and poor unbanked households, has also collapsed.

Digital lenders have seen a big jump in the number of queries for loans and new credit lines in the last few days. However, many of them do not have the cash to disburse. Most digital lenders rely on banks/NBFCs for financing and this source has dried up. Lenders who rely on collection-based models are also struggling because either their clients are hoarding cash or because they are unable to reach out to their clients, or both.

Lending against agricultural commodities (warehouse receipts) increases after the harvest, but not this year. The lenders cannot verify the stocks in warehouses because of travel restrictions. Special provisions for essential commodities permit warehouses (and cold stores) to remain open in the lockdown. However, the situation on the ground is quite different. Many warehouses are closed because of the problems created by local law enforcement and the paucity of labour.
Collapsing and Unmet Demand
In rural India 85% of the workforce do not have salaried jobs vis-à-vis 53% in the urban areas. Even among those with salaried jobs, 46% do not get "paid leave" and more than 70% work without any written contracts (NSO 2019). This overwhelming dependence on casual jobs and self-employment means that almost 90% of all Indian households will experience a sharp decline in incomes within a month.

Even farmer incomes are going to be lower than normal. Farmers were looking forward to a bumper harvest in March-April after a good rabi season, but the lockdown has changed the situation for worse. Trains and trucks are not moving and, suddenly, India is fragmented into thousands of small village markets that are sealed off from each other. Trading has stopped in mandis. Price discovery will be difficult for farmers and coordinating supplies from surplus areas to major demand centres will be a huge challenge. The much-maligned middleman will be greatly missed this season.

The Food Corporation of India (FCI) and the state governments may manage to procure wheat at the minimum support prices even during the lockdown in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, and western Uttar Pradesh, but the public procurement system is weak in Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh and unlikely to improve this year.

High-value food commodities (HVCs), such as milk, fruits and vegetables, and meat, fish and eggs, account for 56% of the total value of output from agriculture and allied sectors (CSO 2018). Supply chain issues for these perishable products will be more challenging. Apart from the supply issues, there will be a larger decline in their consumption because of their higher income elasticities. Shutting down of hotels, restaurants, and catering (HORECA) is another reason for decline in the demand of HVCs. According to unofficial trade estimates, the HORECA segment accounts for 30% of total milk consumption in North India.

The demand for chicken and eggs had started going down even before the lockdown started because of rumours that poultry products can be vectors for COVID-19. In recent months, many small poultry farmers had to cull their mature broilers because there was no demand. The central and state governments should make public announcements to dispel these rumours. In Delhi, the price of broiler chicken has gone down from `55/kilogram in January to `24/kilogram in March (Ramkumar 2020).
Pessimistic Market Sentiments
The lockdown has practically shut down India's economy and there is an uncertainty among the citizenry in general regarding whether it will end on 14 April 2020 or not.1 The Indian economy was already struggling when the COVID-19 outbreak started in Wuhan, China. Aggregate demand was low, credit flow was slow and fiscal deficit was high and rising.

Farm incomes are going to be lower and rural wages may stagnate or even decline. A decline in rural incomes will have economy-wide impacts and the recovery will be slow. The
shutdown has disrupted the cash flows of all kinds of businesses and no one knows how or when it will be restored. As a result, many small enterprises in food and other sectors of the economy will not recover from this shock and eventually go out of business. This will lead to a further increase in unemployment and a decline in aggregate demand. Low demand from world markets will make domestic problems worse.

On 25 March 2020, the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a 1.7 lakh crore stimulus, the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY), to help businesses and poor families. The stimulus may bring some relief to beneficiary families, but it is too small to change market sentiments-`1.7 lakh crore is 0.8% of India's annual GDP and around 5% of the central government's annual budget in 2020-21. In comparison, the stimulus approved on 25 March 2020 by the United States Congress is more than 50% of the annual federal budget and nearly 10% of the annual GDP of the country. On the other hand, Brazil has announced a fiscal package adding up to 3.5% of GDP and China has approved fiscal measures equal to 1.2% of GDP (IMF 2020), though neither of these countries have announced a nationwide lockdown like India.

The PMGKY also has a rural bias. Except for the increased allocation of subsidised rice, wheat, and pulses for the next three months, most of the other provisions of this special scheme cover either only the rural households or only the below poverty line households in both rural and urban areas. They leave out millions of urban families that will be pushed into transient poverty by the COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent lockdown.
Conclusions
As most investors, lenders, and consumers become risk-averse and pessimistic about the future of the economy, this pessimism may become self-fulfilling. An entrepreneur in our discussion added: "I do not know of a single economy in history that has been fully shut down and restarted." This is a widely shared view. Around the world, epidemiologists, economists, and policymakers realise that they are dealing with a problem of unprecedented proportions.

India's food system is only a part of its economy, but we will not be able to control the pandemic if its food system collapses. Enforcing necessary measures like the lockdown will become impossible if people do not have enough food and money to fulfil basic needs. The immediate policy challenge, therefore, is to restore food supplies and the purchasing power of poor households without exposing them to greater risk from the virus (Ravallion 2020). Meeting these challenges requires a bigger stimulus than the PMGKY and better coordination between the districts, state, and the central governments.
Note
1 Many in this group called upon their friends and families within their networks who reside in villages across various parts of India. It appears that people in many parts of rural India still do not understand or appreciate the concept of social distancing. This may be one of the reasons why local law enforcement is being excessively strict and indiscriminate in its attempts to enforce a complete lockdown and restrictions on all kinds of movement and assembly. If social distancing remains ineffective in parts of rural India, then the lockdown may not flatten the curve for COVID-19 cases and the government may need to extend the lockdown period.
References
CSO (2018): Statewise and Item-wise Estimates of Value of Output from Agriculture and Allied Sectors (2011-12 to 2015-16), Central Statistics Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India.

IMF (2020): Policy Responses to COVID-19, International Monetary Fund, https://www.imf.org/en/Topics/imf-and-covid19/Policy-Responses-to-COVID-19.

NSO (2019): Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) Jul y 2017-June 2018 Annual Report, National Statistics Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India.

Ramkumar, R (2020): The COVID-19 Pandemic and Indian Agriculture: A Note, Foundation for Agrarian Studies, http://fas.org.in/blog/covid19-and-indian-agriculture/.

Ravallion, Martin (2020): "On The Virus And Poor People in The World," https://economicsandpoverty.com/2020/04/02/on-the-virus-and-poor-people-in-the-world/.

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India's Food System in the Time of COVID-19

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India's complete lockdown has caused unnecessary disruptions in the food supply chain, with the scarcity of labour making it even worse. A sharp decline in demand is imminent with the financial sector being in a freeze and incomes having shrunk for everyone, except for the small salaried class.

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Disruptions are expected in the production and distribution of products like pork, and localized shortages could occur.

As workers in the industry fall ill, food shortages that started with consumer hoarding could reduce choices for weeks. Credit... Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times

The nation's food supply chain is showing signs of strain, as increasing numbers of workers are falling ill with the coronavirus in meat processing plants, warehouses and grocery stores.

The spread of the virus through the food and grocery industry is expected to cause disruptions in production and distribution of certain products like pork, industry executives, labor unions and analysts have warned in recent days. The issues follow nearly a month of stockpiling of food and other essentials by panicked shoppers that have tested supply networks as never before.

Industry leaders and observers acknowledge the shortages could increase, but they insist it is more of an inconvenience than a major problem. People will have enough to eat; they just may not have the usual variety. The food supply remains robust, they say, with hundreds of millions of pounds of meat in cold storage. There is no evidence that the coronavirus can be transmitted through food or its packaging, according to the Department of Agriculture.

Still, the illnesses have the potential to cause shortages lasting weeks for a few products, creating further anxiety for Americans already shaken by how difficult it can be to find high-demand staples like flour and eggs.

"You might not get what you want when you want it," said Christine McCracken, a meat industry analyst at Rabobank in New York. "Consumers like to have a lot of different choices, and the reality is in the short term, we just don't have the labor to make that happen."

In one of the most significant signs of pressure since the pandemic began, Smithfield Foods became the latest company to announce a shutdown, announcing Sunday that it would close its processing plant in Sioux Falls, S.D., after 230 workers became ill with the virus. The plant produces more than 5 percent of the nation's pork.

"The closure of this facility, combined with a growing list of other protein plants that have shuttered across our industry, is pushing our country perilously close to the edge in terms of our meat supply," Smithfield's chief executive, Kenneth M. Sullivan, said in a statement.

As of Saturday, the plant's Covid-19 cases were more than half South Dakota's active total, Gov. Kristi Noem said. She called the outbreak an "alarming statistic" and asked Smithfield to shut down the facility for two weeks.

The problems at the Sioux Falls pork plant show the food processing industry's vulnerability to an outbreak. Employees often work shoulder to shoulder, and some companies have granted sick leave only to employees who test positive for the coronavirus. That potentially leaves on the job thousands of other infected workers who haven't been tested, hastening the infection's spread.

Other major processors have had to shut down plants. JBS USA, the world's largest meat processor, closed a plant in Pennsylvania for two weeks. Last week, Cargill closed a facility in Pennsylvania where it produces steaks, ground beef and ground pork. And Tyson halted operations at a pork plant in Iowa after more than two dozen workers tested positive.

"Labor is going to be the biggest thing that can break," said Karan Girotra, a supply-chain expert at Cornell University. "If large numbers of people start getting sick in rural America, all bets are off."

At the other end of the supply chain, grocery stores are also dealing with increasing illnesses among workers, as well as absences by those afraid to go in to work.

Even as company officials called them "essential" for their role in feeding the country, grocery store workers went weeks without being provided with face masks and other protective gear.

Some food companies have been slow to provide the gear, while others tried but found that their orders were rerouted to the health care industry, where there is also a dire need. A few grocery workers say they are still waiting to be supplied with masks, despite federal health guidelines that recommend everybody wear one in public.

The workers also face a threat from their exposure to customers, who continue to stock up on food. Some, the workers say, don't wear masks and fail to keep an adequate level of social distancing.

There are no government agencies tracking illnesses among food industry workers nationwide. The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents 1.3 million grocery store, food processing and meat packing employees, said on Monday that at least 1,500 of its members had been infected with the virus and that 30 of them have died.

"The Covid-19 pandemic represents a clear and present danger to our workers and our nation's food supply," U.F.C.W. International's president, Marc Perrone, said.

Even before the illnesses began to spread through the industry, the supply chain had been tested intensely. Truck drivers, who were already scarce before the pandemic, couldn't make deliveries fast enough. Hot dog factories and dairy farmers ramped up production in response to waves of panic buying.

Those surges continue to take a toll on a system that had been built largely for customers seeking speed and convenience, not stockpiling. On Sunday, Amazon said it was getting new customers seeking online grocery delivery from Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh to effectively sign up for a wait list. It's an unusual concession for an internet giant that is used to unimpeded growth.

On some days, shoppers still cannot find flour, eggs or other staples that are in high demand. Retailers and manufacturers have offered reassurances that these shortages are temporary and merely reflect a distribution and production network that cannot work fast enough.

The parts of the food system that will suffer the worst disruptions are the ones dependent on heavily consolidated supply chains that employ large numbers of people, Mr. Girotra of Cornell said.

The Smithfield plant in South Dakota is a stark example of a vulnerable link in the chain. On its own, it produces 130 million servings of food per week. It employs 3,700 people, many of whom work closely together deboning and cutting up meat.

Last week, South Dakota officials watched the number of cases there increase at an alarming rate. Smithfield said it would shut down the building for three days to sanitize the facility. But as the number of Covid-19 cases surpassed more than half of all cases in Sioux Falls and the surrounding county, state officials asked the plant to close for 14 days "to protect the employees, the families, the Sioux Falls community and the people of South Dakota," Governor Noem said on Saturday.

The next day, Smithfield said it would shut down "until further notice" and pay its workers for the next two weeks.

The state has not reported outbreaks at any other meat processing plants. South Dakota officials said Smithfield had ramped up testing of its employees, suggesting that this could have resulted in rates that were higher than in other populations in the state.

Some big food producers are coming up with contingency plans. Absences have risen at some plants run by the Mississippi-based chicken processor Sanderson Farms, though not at a level that would significantly disrupt production, said Mike Cockrell, the company's chief financial officer.

The company has explored alternatives in case large numbers of its workers become sick. Much of the labor at a processing plant involves deboning chicken and dividing it into cuts like breasts, thighs and wings. A reduced staff could continue packaging chicken but skip the labor-intensive process of dividing up the birds.

"You could change your mix and produce a less consumer-friendly product with fewer people," Mr. Cockrell said. "That's not a disaster."

At the grocery store, he said, "you would see a whole chicken, and you could take that chicken home."

In the grocery industry, many of the solutions to keeping the supply chain functioning are also simple, workers say. The U.F.C.W., for instance, is urging states to mandate that shoppers wear masks and appealing to customers to "shop smart" by refraining from touching products, using a shopping list and making fewer trips to the store.

Aaron Squeo, who works in the meat department at a Kroger supermarket in Madison Heights, Mich., said customers needed to practice better social distancing.

"I have seen whole families out like it's an outing," Mr. Squeo said. "This can't continue like this. We need to truly change how we shop. Our lives are stake."

Julie Creswell contributed reporting.

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U.S. Food Supply Chain Is Strained as Virus Spreads

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Disruptions are expected in the production and distribution of products like pork, and localized shortages could occur. The nation's food supply chain is showing signs of strain, as increasing numbers of workers are falling ill with the coronavirus in meat processing plants, warehouses and grocery stores.

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We could like to share results of the "COVID-19 FOOD STORY" online survey conducted by NAN, Kenya to our networks, @Selena Ahmed (speaker) and @Harriet Okroniya (participant) in the Ag2Nut webinar conducted on April 2nd.

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Nutritious Agriculture Network (NAN), Kenya Online Survey Report

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Elvis Gakuba

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Piece from IFPRI by S. Mahendra Dev, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research

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With COVID-19 now spreading in India, massive consequences to health and livelihoods are feared, and the government has imposed a 21-day national lockdown to limit virus transmission. Given the precarious livelihoods of many Indians, agriculture, food security, and safety net policy and program responses are also urgently required. Prof. Mahendra Dev, an experienced academic and policy maker in India, provides additional insights into what actions and reforms are needed, and soon.-John McDermott, series co-editor and Director, CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH).

India has taken early action to limit the spread of COVID-19, ordering a 21-day nationwide lockdown for its population of 1.3 billion people starting March 25. The novel coronavirus has spread widely in India relatively recently compared to other countries, and the number of reported infections is low so far, with 5,274 cases and 149 deaths as of April 8. However, as COVID-19 cases are increasing fast, there is great concern about the disease's potential spread and impact. India has to be ready for a possible surge. Testing should be expanded significantly. The government views the pattern of the spread of COVID-19 as similar to the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, meaning the spread is unlikely to be uniform. After the 21-day period expires, it is planning to maintain the full lockdown in "hotspot" areas and relax it in other places.

These measures may help in limiting the health crisis, but-as in other countries-the complete shutdown of all economic activities except essential services will create an economic crisis and misery for the poor, with massive job losses and rising food insecurity.

The economic shock will likely be much more severe for India, for two reasons. First, pre-COVID-19, the economy was already slowing down, compounding existing problems of unemployment, low incomes, rural distress, malnutrition, and widespread inequality. Second, India's large informal sector is particularly vulnerable. Out of the national total 465 million workers, around 91% (422 million) were informal workers in 2017-18. Lacking regular salaries or incomes, these agriculture, migrant, and other informal workers would be hardest-hit during the lockdown period. Here, I focus on the likely impacts on on agriculture, supply chains, food and nutrition security and livelihoods.
Agriculture and supply chains
COVID-19 is disrupting some activities in agriculture and supply chains. Preliminary reports show that the non-availability of migrant labor is interrupting some harvesting activities, particularly in northwest India where wheat and pulses are being harvested. There are disruptions in supply chains because of transportation problems and other issues. Prices have declined for wheat, vegetables, and other crops, yet consumers are often paying more. Media reports show that the closure of hotels, restaurants, sweet shops, and tea shops during the lockdown is already depressing milk sales. Meanwhile, poultry farmers have been badly hit due to misinformation, particularly on social media, that chicken are the carriers of COVID-19.

Here are some measures are required to keep the agricultural sector and supply chains working smoothly:

The government has correctly issued lockdown guidelines that exempt farm operations and supply chains. But implementation problems leading to labor shortages and falling prices should be rectified.

Keeping supply chains functioning well is crucial to food security. It should be noted that 2 to 3 million deaths in the Bengal famine of 1943 were due to food supply disruptions-not a lack of food availability.

Farm populations must be protected from the coronavirus to the extent possible by testing and practicing social distancing.

Farmers must have continued access to markets. This can be a mix of private markets and government procurement.

Small poultry and dairy farmers need more targeted help, as their pandemic-related input supply and market-accessproblems are urgent.

Farmers and agricultural workers should be included in the government's assistance package and any social protection programs addressing the crisis.

As lockdown measures have increased, demand has risen for home delivery of groceries and E-commerce. This trend should be encouraged and promoted.

The government should promote trade by avoiding export bans and import restrictions.

Using social safety nets as a bridge between health shock and economic shock
The lockdown has choked off almost all economic activity. In urban areas, leading to the widespread loss of jobs and incomes for informal workers and the poor. Estimates by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy show that unemployment shot up from 8.4% in mid-March to 23% in the first week of April. In urban areas, unemployment soared to 30.9% as of April 5. The shutdown will cause untold misery for informal workers and the poor, who lead precarious lives facing hunger and malnutrition.

The best way to address this urgent need is to use social safety nets extensively to stabilize their lives with food and cash.

The Indian government has quickly responded to the crisis and announced a $22 billion relief package, which includes food and cash transfers. Several state governments have announced their own support packages.

The central government's relief package, called Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (Prime Minister's plan for well-being of the poor), is aimed at providing safety nets for those hit the hardest by the COVID-19 lockdown. However, it is inadequate compared to the enormous scale of the problem. Nobel Prize economists Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerji say that the government should have been much bolder with the package's social transfer schemes. The $22 billion in spending is only 0.85% of India's GDP. This is much lower than the packages passed by the United States, European and some Asian countries. India should think bigger, and be spending at least 4% to 5% of GDP. The central and state governments must spend more, even if there is one-time hike in the fiscal deficit.

Below are some additional measures needed in addition to the government package:

Food and nutrition security. Government warehouses are overflowing with 71 million tons of rice and wheat. In order to avoid exclusion errors, it is better to offer universal coverage of distribution in the next few months. Nutrition programs like Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), mid-day meals, and Anganwadis (rural child care centers) should continue to work as essential services and provide rations and meals to recipients at home. Eggs can be added to improve nutrition for children and women. Several state governments have started innovative programs to help informal workers and the poor. For example, the Kerala government is providing meals with diversified diets at the doorsteps of households.

Cash transfers. Unemployed informal workers need cash income support. The government has provided Rs. 500 ($6.60) per month to the bank accounts of 200 million women via the Jan Dhan financial inclusion program. But this too is insufficient. We need to have a minimum of Rs.3000 ($40) per month in cash transfers for the next three months.

Migrant workers. There are about 40-50 million seasonal migrant workers in India. In recent days, global media have broadcast images of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers from several states trudging for miles and miles on highways; some walked more than 1000 kilometers to return to their home villages. They should be given both cash transfers and nutritious food.

COVID-19 is an unprecedented challenge for India; its large population and the economy's dependence on informal labor make lockdowns and other social distancing measures hugely disruptive. The central and state governments have recognized the challenge and responded aggressively-but this response should be just the beginning. India must be prepared to scale it up as events unfold, easing the economic impacts through even greater public program support and policies that keep markets functioning.
S. Mahendra Dev is Vice Chancellor of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research in Mumbai. The analysis and opinions expressed in this piece are solely those of the author.

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Addressing COVID-19 impacts on agriculture, food security, and

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With COVID-19 now spreading in India, massive consequences to health and livelihoods are feared, and the government has imposed a 21-day national lockdown to limit virus transmission. Given the precarious livelihoods of many Indians, agriculture, food security, and safety net policy and program responses are also urgently required. Prof.

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SDG2 Advocacy Hub Twitter Chat

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COVID-19 has brought to the light the fragility of our food system and the importance to build resilience, especially for the most vulnerable, which are already feeling the biggest impact.

On 9 April, the UN Food Systems Summit 2021 and the SDG2 Advocacy Hub will host a twitter chat to help elevate food systems amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Gathering diverse voices, the twitter chat will explore the impacts of COVID-19 on our food systems and look at how we move forward quickly to build resilience. We also look to celebrate the role food systems play in delivering good food for all as we build towards the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit.

Here are the details:

Time & date: 9 April at 10am EDT/ 3pm BST/ 4pm CAT

Focus: Impact of COVID-19 on food systems

Format: 45 minute twitter chat with 7 questions published from @FoodSystems with #COVID19foodsystems

Questions: Find here the questions in Spanish, French, Russian, Arabic and Mandarin.

What is a "food system" and how are they being impacted around the world by COVID-19?
Part 2: Rate the top challenge facing @foodsystems around the world:

Slowed global food trade

Rise in food prices

Shortage of labour for harvesting or planting

2. How does the disruption that we're seeing in many parts of the world highlight the fragility of our current food systems?

3. How can we build resilience now, and how can we ensure that future food systems are inclusive and beneficial to the most vulnerable?

4. What are 3 key lessons from the COVID-19 challenge?

5. From local food producers to kitchen gardens to shelved goods, how can we ensure food is accessible, affordable & available for all? #LeaveNoOneBehind
Find here the questions in Spanish, French, Russian, Arabic and Mandarin.
6. At the centre of all celebrations is #food. How will we engage with food differently post - COVID-19?
Find here a cheat sheet with guidelines for a twitter chat.
7. How is UN Food Systems Summit 2021 providing an opportunity to "build back better" and what is one key outcome? What role for food system stakeholders?

JOIN US!

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COVID-19 has brought to the light the fragility of our food system and the importance to build resilience, especially for the most vulnerable, which are already feeling the biggest impact. On 9 April, the UN Food Systems Summit 2021 and the SDG2 Advocacy Hub will host a twitter chat to help elevate food systems amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Piece from IIED by Brian Ochieng Otieno, Loitokitok Community Forest Association and Kenyatta University

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International Institute for Environment and Development

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To mark the International Day of Forests earlier this week, we're sharing a story about a beekeeping project that's helping to conserve Kenya's Loitokitok forest and support the surrounding community.

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Harnessing the power of bees to benefit forest and people

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To mark the International Day of Forests earlier this week, we're sharing a story about a beekeeping project that's helping to conserve Kenya's Loitokitok forest and support the surrounding community

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Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, Netherlands

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Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, Netherlands

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Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, Netherlands

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Piece from IIED by Sigrid Wertheim-Heck, Wageningen Univeristy Environmental Policy Group

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International Institute for Environment and Development

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The impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on the diets of Hanoi's urban poor

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The COVID-19 pandemic is driving governments to enforce major restrictions on the lives of citizens. Vietnam, with nearly 100 million people, is no exception. The country was praised internationally for its rapid response in deploying strict quarantine measures during the initial outbreak of the virus.

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Piece by Taddese Alemu Zerfu, IMMANA Fellow

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IFPRI webinar

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virtual event - covid-19: implications for global and country-level food security

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virtual event - covid-19: implications for global and country-level food security

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Virtual Event - COVID-19: Implications for Global and Country-Level Food Security, Nutrition, and Poverty

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Watch online at IFPRI's event page _____________________________________________________________________________ HOW TO REGISTER FOR THIS FREE EVENT (Online ONLY) 1. Eventbrite - Register for this FREE event here: https://covid-19implicationsevent.eventbrite.com 2. Facebook - coming soon 3.

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Addition from IMMANA Fellow Laura Hackl

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Auch die Landwirte im Landkreis könnten über kurz oder lang von der Corona-Krise betroffen sein. In Österreich ist die Milchabnahme in einigen Regionen um bis zu 30 Prozent zurückgegangen.

Eine Leserbriefschreiberin hatte sich vergangene Woche Sorgen wegen ausbleibender Ernte- bzw. Saathelfer aus den Nachbarländern Tschechien und Polen gemacht. Laut BBV-Kreisobmann und Vizepräsident des Verbands der deutschen Milchwirtschaft, Wolfgang Scholz aus Sachsenried, ist diese Thematik im Landkreis, wo überwiegend Milchwirtschaft betrieben wird, unerheblich. „Das spielt in unserer Region eine untergeordnete Rolle", meinte auch der Peißenberger Bernhard Heger, Beirat Bayern im Bund deutscher Milchwirtschaft (BDM). Die Milchbauern sind nicht auf Hilfskräfte aus dem Ausland angewiesen und haben derzeit nichts zu befürchten.

Der Hauptabnehmer im Landkreis, die Molkerei Hochland, arbeitet laut Wolfgang Scholz auf Hochtouren, die Abnahme sei gesichert. Scholz sieht da eher ein logistisches Problem, wenn die Milchprodukte aus dem Schongauer Land zum Beispiel in Regionen geliefert werden müssten, wo die Produktion eingebrochen ist. Das könnte aber durch Zuschüsse geregelt werden. „Der Milchförderungsfonds zum Schutz der deutschen Milchwirtschaft kümmert sich darum, dass die Milch vermarktet wird, falls sie in der Region nicht zu vermarkten ist", so Scholz.

Molkerei will eine Woche lang keine Milch mehr abholen

„Die Aussichten, wie es mit der Milch weitergeht, sind ungewiss. Europaweite Handelsbarrieren behindern über kurz oder lang den Markt", befürchtet dagegen Heger. Mancherorts fehlt bereits Verpackungsmaterial für Milchprodukte, hat er gehört. Betriebe, die nach Italien liefern, bleiben auf ihrer Milch sitzen, weil Corona dort ganze Betriebe lahmgelegt hat. Was zur Folge habe, dass eine Molkerei, die er nicht nennen wollte, bereits angekündigt habe, eine Woche lang die Milchabholung auszusetzen, aber den Ausfall zu bezahlen.

„Ich will keine Panik schüren, aber es herrscht eine extreme Unsicherheit. Die Milchbetriebe sind sowieso auf Kante genäht", so Heger, der auf eine gesetzliche Reduzierung der Milchmenge um drei bis vier Prozent als Entlastung des Marktes hofft.

Corona: Landwirte in täglicher Arbeit noch nicht eingeschränkt

In der täglichen Arbeit seien die Landwirte im Landkreis bislang noch nicht eingeschränkt. „Gelassen bleiben kann man als Landwirt aber absolut nicht, weil das Ganze eine Wirtschaftskrise nach sich zieht. Da wird uns schon Angst", meinte auch Scholz. Aber die Landwirte arbeiten weiter, versorgen ihr Vieh und bestellen die Felder, um die Lebensmittelversorgung im Land sicherzustellen. Gefragt ist laut Heger der Gesetzgeber, eine Zukunftsperspektive für die Landwirtschaft zu schaffen, um den Strukturwandel durch Betriebsaufgabe aufzuhalten und die Souveränität der Nahrungsmittelversorgung in Deutschland nicht aufs Spiel zu setzen.
VON URSULA FRÖHLICH
Alle Entwicklungen zum Coronavirus im Landkreis Weilheim-Schongau lesen Sie in unserem Newsticker.

Auch interessant: Tragen Sie hier Ihr Restaurant oder lokales Unternehmen mit seinem Corona-Service ein. Vom Lieferservice bis Abholdienst bis zur Dienstleistung. In dieser Karte haben wir bereits alle Einträge zusammengefasst.

Lesen Sie außerdem: Nach der Landratswahl: Siegerin Andrea Jochner-Weiß (CSU) analysiert ihr Ergebnis zufrieden,der unterlegene Gegenkandidat Karl-Heinz Grehl (Grüne) blickt zwiespältig auf die Kreispolitik

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Corona: „Extreme Unsicherheit" bei Landwirten

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Auch die Landwirte im Landkreis könnten über kurz oder lang von der Corona-Krise betroffen sein. In Österreich ist die Milchabnahme in einigen Regionen um bis zu 30 Prozent zurückgegangen. Eine Leserbriefschreiberin hatte sich vergangene Woche Sorgen wegen ausbleibender Ernte- bzw. Saathelfer aus den Nachbarländern Tschechien und Polen gemacht.

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Addition from IMMANA Fellow Laura Hackl

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April 3, 2020

Empty store shelves and long lines may fuel Americans' anxieties, but rest assured: Food supply chains in the United States remain strong in the crisis. Millions of farmers, packers, shippers, distributors, stockers, and salesclerks are working together, around the clock, to keep food on store shelves and Americans fed and healthy. Our food supply chains will remain strong if policymakers cooperate with companies, if they consider buyers' needs, and if we keep our neighbors in mind.

Every day Covid-19 is presenting new challenges to the food supply chain, and some localities are acting fast. Washington, D.C. has granted exemptions for oversized vehicles and drivers transporting emergency relief to, through, and from any part of the District. Chicago, like many other major municipalities, has teamed up with its state retail merchant association, Illinois Retail Merchants Association (IRMA), to ensure residents' access to grocery stores and pharmacies, and called on all Chicagoans to keep normal shopping routines and avoid stockpiling. The Department of Homeland Security has deemed food and agriculture sector employees "critical infrastructure workers," issuing guidance to minimize work interruptions during the pandemic. Likewise, FEMA has relaunched a 24/7 operation (NBEOC@fema.dhs.gov) to resolve challenges to supply-chain continuity.

Food supply chains in the United States remain strong in the crisis.

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act, enacted March 18, helps federal feeding programs pivot to meet families' new needs. Under the act, states can allow shoppers to substitute foods under the Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). For example, if WIC-eligible bread is sold out, mothers can purchase comparable products instead. Still, a nation-wide waiver to allow for such replacements would help retailers and customers both. The act also allows states to request waivers to plus-up Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) households to the maximum allotment during the crisis. The injection of additional benefits will help families keep food on the table, and grocers stand ready to serve all customers, no matter how they pay. States could help forestall demand spikes by spreading out the distribution of additional benefits across the month.

The strength of our food supply chains also depends on a steady supply of labor from Mexico and Canada. The State Department recently exempted seasonal agricultural workers in Mexico from visa restrictions to ensure that crops are harvested and fruit is picked. As "critical infrastructure workers," grocery store employees can cross our northern and southern borders even as transit is restricted to combat the crisis.

Finally, as consumers, we have a critical role to play: Don't panic. Overstocking food may be a natural response to stay-at-home guidance, but it's these very spikes in demand-not shortages of supply-that lead to empty shelves and long lines. So, shop normally. Stock your pantry with one- or two-weeks' worth of shelf-stable food. If you see occasional shortages, give stores time to re-stock and check back in a few days. And when you're shopping, keep your neighbors in mind, especially those who rely on WIC and SNAP benefits. They can't afford to stock up for several weeks at once, so leave enough on the shelf for them, too.

As consumers, we have a critical role to play: Don't panic.

Fear can fill its own prophesies. During the 2008 food-price crisis, fearful of potential rice shortages, some countries imposed export bans and other trade restrictions, though there was no actual shortage. The price of rice doubled in six months. Today, when fearful consumers over-buy, shelves empty.

The specter of food insecurity-among families, students, and the elderly who were food insecure before coronavirus as well as the newly unemployed-is daunting. In this crisis, strong public-private cooperation, smart policy responses, and prudent consumer behavior are essential. Cooperation, not fear, keeps us secure.

Caitlin Welsh is the director of the Global Food Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. Leslie Sarasin is president and CEO of Food Marketing Institute - The Food Industry Association in Arlington, V.A.

Commentary is produced by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a private, tax-exempt institution focusing on international public policy issues. Its research is nonpartisan and nonproprietary. CSIS does not take specific policy positions. Accordingly, all views, positions, and conclusions expressed in this publication should be understood to be solely those of the author(s).
© 2020 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. All rights reserved.

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Cooperation, Not Fear, Keeps the Food Supply Chain Secure

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Empty store shelves and long lines may fuel Americans' anxieties, but rest assured: Food supply chains in the United States remain strong in the crisis. Millions of farmers, packers, shippers, distributors, stockers, and salesclerks are working together, around the clock, to keep food on store shelves and Americans fed and healthy.

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Weekly local markets for perishables

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Piece from IFPRI by Clemens Breisinger (IFPRI), Abla Abdel Latif (Egyptian Center for Economic Studies - ESSP), Mariam Raouf (ESSP) and Manfred Wiebelt (Kiel Institute for the World Economy)

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As COVID-19 reaches everywhere, low- and middle-income countries are racing to respond to this massive and fast-moving challenge. In the first country blog post in this series, Clemens Breisinger and colleagues assess the pandemic's economic impacts for Egypt. Household income, especially for the poor, will be hard-hit, linked to disruptions in tourism and declining remittances. The team provides initial policy insights for support to households and businesses.-John McDermott, series co-editor and Director, CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH)

The economic impacts of the COVID-19 crisis are increasingly hitting low- and middle-income countries and the poor. International travel restrictions and the full or partial closure of businesses and industries in Asia, Europe, and North America have led to a collapse in global travel and are expected to reduce the flows of remittances. Tourism and remittances are important sources of employment and incomes for the poor, respectively. This post assesses the potential impacts of the expected reductions in these income flows by using Egypt as a case study.

The pandemic is likely to have a significant economic toll. For each month that the COVID‑19 crisis persists, our simulations using IFPRI's Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) multiplier model for Egypt suggest national GDP could fall by between 0.7% and 0.8% (EGP 36-41 billion or $2.3-$2.6 billion). Household incomes are likely to fall, particularly among the poor.

Egypt is a rising star among emerging economies. Even though several reforms remain to be completed, the reform program launched in 2016 has started to bear fruit: Egypt has achieved economic growth of over 5% in the last two years. The tourism sector recorded its highest revenues in 2018-19, another sign of increased stability. Continued efforts aimed at improving Egypt's business climate were expected to lead to even stronger private sector growth and economic diversification in 2020 and beyond.

This progress will almost certainly be interrupted by the COVID‑19 pandemic. While the government is taking actions to contain the spread of the virus-including the suspension of commercial international passenger flights, school and sports clubs closures and a nationwide nighttime curfew,-and the number of reported infections in Egypt is currently low compared to that of many other countries, the global economic slowdown is expected to have major knock-on effects for Egypt. International travel restrictions are already curtailing tourism to the country. The global slowdown is likely reducing payments received from the Suez Canal and remittances from Egyptians working abroad. These three sources together account for 14.5% of Egypt's GDP. Thus, any disruptions to these foreign income sources will have far-reaching implications for Egypt's economy and population.

Using the SAM multiplier model for Egypt, we simulate the individual and combined effects of a collapse in the tourism sector and reductions in Suez Canal revenues and in foreign remittances under more and less pessimistic scenarios. SAM multiplier models are well suited to measuring short-term direct and indirect impacts of unanticipated, rapid-onset demand- or supply-side economic shocks such as those caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We model the demand shocks as the anticipated reductions in tourism, Suez Canal, and remittances revenues.

Our results show the potential significant impact on the economy and people for each month that the COVID-19 crisis persists. If the dynamic effects of the COVID-19 shock on the Egyptian economy are different than those simulated, our results could be either under- or over-estimations of the aggregate economic impact of the crisis. Also, effects from other channels may reinforce the effects of the pandemic.

These expectations also assume that there is no change in the current government policies in place to combat the crisis. This is important to note, as the government is taking aggressive action to contain the disease and support the economy and people. As such, the model scenarios do not consider the impacts of specific government economic policies, but are intended to support government decision makers in deciding on the scale of their support to the economy and to Egyptian households.

Figure 1 breaks down estimated losses in GDP, which may hit 0.8% per month in the more pessimistic scenario. Lower tourist spending will affect not only hotels, restaurants, taxi enterprises, and tourist guides, but also food processing and agriculture. Lower public revenues from Suez Canal fees are likely to affect the government budget. Lower remittances income will likely reduce household consumption of consumer goods and hit sectors producing intermediate goods. We estimate that the absence of tourists alone may cause monthly losses of EGP 26.3 billion, or $1.5 billion. Thus, the loss in tourism revenues accounts for about two thirds of the total estimated impact.

Policy considerations IFPRI. Source: Authors' calculations
Note: The less pessimistic scenario assumes a 10% reduction in Suez Canal revenues and in remittances, respectively IFPRI. Source: Authors' calculations.
Note: The less pessimistic combination scenario assumes a 10% reduction in Suez Canal revenues and in remittances. The more pessimistic scenario assumes a 15% reduction in these payments. Both combination scenarios assume a complete absence of international tourists.
Household incomes are estimated to decline by between EGP 153 or $9.70 (less pessimistic scenario) and EGP 180 or $11.40 (more pessimistic scenario), per person per month for each month that the crisis continues (between 9.0% and 10.6% of household income). The expected reduction in tourism has the strongest effect on all households, making up more than half the economic impact for all household types in the model (Figure 2). Households are also affected directly and indirectly by lower remittances from abroad.

While all households are hurt by lower tourist expenditures, it is poor households-and especially those in rural areas-that suffer the most from lower remittances. Due principally to the relatively greater decline in remittances that they experience, rural poor households are estimated to lose in total between EGP 104 and 130 ($6.60-$8.20) per person per month, or between 11.5% and 14.4% of their average income, while urban poor households will see their incomes decline somewhat less, between EGP 80 and 94 ($5-$6) per person a month, or between 9.7% and 11.5% of their average income.
Clemens Breisinger is a Senior Research Fellow in IFPRI's Development Strategy and Governance Division (DSGD) and Head of IFPRI's Egypt Strategy Support Program (ESSP), based in Cairo. Abla Abdel Latif is the Executive Director of the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies in Cairo. Mariam Raouf is a Research Associate of ESSP, based in Cairo. Manfred Wiebelt is a Senior Research Fellow and Professor of Economics at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Kiel, Germany. The analysis and opinions expressed in this piece are solely those of the authors. We thank Dr. Diaa Noureldin, Senior Advisor; Dr. Sahar Aboud; Principal Economist; Racha Seif Eldin, Senior Economist; and Mohamed Hosny, Economist, all at the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies (ECES), for their inputs to this study through their excellent work on ECES's Views on News - Views on Crisis series. We also are grateful to Xinshen Diao, James Thurlow, and Karl Pauw, all of IFPRI, for their technical review and comments. A more detailed description of the SAM multiplier model and the underlying assumptions are published as an IFPRI Policy Note. This post is the first in a series of forthcoming contributions by IFPRI and collaborators to assess the country-level impacts of COVID-19.
If the crisis persists for three to six months, as many now believe likely, the cumulative loss from these three external shocks alone could amount to between 2.1% and 4.8% of GDP in 2020. Importantly, our simulations measure only the effects that might result from specific impact channels, e.g., foreign sources of remittances and revenues. Domestically, restrictions on movement of people and goods within the country and on certain productive activities may also have adverse economic impacts. On the other hand, some sectors may benefit, such as information and communications technologies, food delivery, or the health-related goods and services sectors.

The authorities have begun a course of decisive action to curb the virus outbreak by allocating EGP 100 billion ($6.3 billion) and have enacted tax breaks for industrial and tourism businesses, reducing the cost of electricity and natural gas to industries, and cutting interest rates, and is considering providing grants to seasonal workers. Additional measures may also be in the works, such as increasing cash transfer payments to poor households, increasing unemployment benefits, and providing targeted support to specific sectors.

While the country's focus currently is rightly on fighting the health crisis and mitigating its immediate impacts, planning on how to re-open the economy should start now. To emerge stronger after the COVID-19 crisis, both the public and private sectors should continue to strengthen their collaboration. The government should work to further improve the business climate for the private sector and continue undertaking serious reforms to overcome institutional weaknesses. The crisis may also provide an opportunity to strengthen analytical capacity in Egypt to provide policy makers with research-based solutions for safeguarding Egypt's economy during future pandemics and other crises.

Unless governments around the world take decisive action, the case of Egypt suggests that poverty is likely to increase in countries where tourism and remittances play a large role. It is also a strong reminder of the interconnectedness of the world and the importance of global cooperation to end this crisis and to be better prepared for the future.

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Economic impact of COVID-19 on tourism and remittances: Insights from

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As COVID-19 reaches everywhere, low- and middle-income countries are racing to respond to this massive and fast-moving challenge. In the first country blog post in this series, Clemens Breisinger and colleagues assess the pandemic's economic impacts for Egypt. Household income, especially for the poor, will be hard-hit, linked to disruptions in tourism and declining remittances.

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Stanford University, Serra Mall, Stanford, CA, USA

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Stanford University, Serra Mall, Stanford, CA, USA

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Stanford University, Serra Mall, Stanford, CA, USA

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Piece from IFPRI by Scott Rozelle, Heather Rahimi and Huan Wang, Stanford University Rural Education Action Program (REAP)

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COVID-19 lockdowns have major impacts on migrant workers and supply chains that depend on them. Scott Rozelle and his team find that the lockdowns in China were successful in protecting rural areas from COVID infections, but that the cost was severe: Poor rural households cut down on education, nutrition, and health expenditures and lost around $100 billion in migrant worker wages.-Johan Swinnen, series co-editor and IFPRI Director General.

In response to the COVID-19 outbreak that began in the city of Wuhan in Dec. 2019, China implemented a nationwide travel blockade and quarantine policy that required all public spaces, businesses, and schools to shut their doors until further notice and placed restrictions on individuals leaving their homes or travelling.

The lockdown was also implemented across China's vast rural areas, home to more than 700 million people. These quarantine measures started during the annual Spring Festival in mid-January, when most rural residents had returned to their family homes to celebrate the Lunar New Year together. Many were migrant workers who had expected to return to China's urban and industrial centers to continue working in factories, construction sites, and service sectors.

In China's urban hubs, local governments, school systems and businesses made efforts to offset the consequences of these policies: Many firms worked with employees remotely through online platforms, and urban schools moved to online learning activities. These efforts helped reduce the fears and economic repercussions for those who were able to work from home and had access to high speed internet. But what about the rest of China-the "Other China"?

Little is known about what actions were taken in rural areas as part of the nationwide quarantine, and even less is known about the effects of COVID-19 in China's rural villages outside the COVID-19 epicenter at the time of the outbreak. To date, no study has empirically examined the economic and social impacts of COVID-19 or its countermeasures in a rural context. China's rural residents are a relatively poor subpopulation, with a meager social safety net at best. Understanding the economic and social effects of COVID-19 on China's vulnerable rural populations can offer urgently-needed lessons as the outbreak spreads to other middle- and low-income countries and regions around the world.

To assess the effects of local and nationwide COVID-19 control measures on the health and economy of China's rural population, a team of researchers, led by the Rural Education Action Program (REAP) at Stanford University, conducted phone surveys with 726 randomly-selected village informants across seven rural Chinese provinces outside of Hubei, the epicenter of the virus.

Our village-level survey examined three overarching questions:

What disease control measures were in place?

How many COVID-19 infections and fatalities were there in each village? (That is, were the dramatic quarantine measures working to stop the virus from spreading?)

What were the indirect impacts of these disease control measures on employment, health (beyond COVID-19 issues), and schooling?

First and foremost, we found that all villages had universally implemented extremely strict quarantine measures to stop the spread of the virus:

100% of all villages had erected strict and high barriers to quarantine their villages off from the rest of the China.

98% reported that all group gatherings (including weddings and funerals) had been temporarily banned.

97% reported that villagers could not visit the homes of friends or family within the village.

86% reported that even their close family or friends living outside the village were not permitted to enter.

96% of informants reported that villagers were required to wear masks to go outside (although only 16% reported that masks were available for purchase).

95% reported they could leave the village to seek healthcare.

So, what was the direct impact on the spread of COVID-19?

This is the good news: The survey was clear that the draconian quarantine measures successfully contained the spread of COVID-19 in rural villages. Only four village informants out of 726 reported COVID-19 infections in their villages, and of the nearly 700,000 residents in these villages, only about 10 had contracted the virus. No one in any surveyed village reported deaths from the virus. This suggests that lockdown measures can effectively minimize the spread of the virus.

However, the question remains: what is the cost on the lives and livelihoods of rural villagers?

Most notably, we found virtually no one was working in the off-farm sector-either in a city as a migrant worker or in the local township/county seat as an off-farm laborer. Three quarters of informants reported that villagers had stopped working because their workplaces were closed. An even greater share could not work due to restrictions on transportation or difficulty in finding housing in the places they typically worked. This means that the employment of rural workers was essentially zero for a full month after the start of the quarantine. Not surprisingly, 92% of village informants reported that disease control measures had reduced their income levels.

Our research also found a number of other impacts from the lockdowns on education, nutrition and access to health care:

79% reported a negative impact on local children's education.

63% reported that the prices of foodstuffs were higher than in 2019. Although the majority said fruit, vegetables, and grains were all available, nearly half of said the quality of their diets fell-raising questions about the impact on nutrition.

62% believed it had become more difficult to seek non-COVID-19 healthcare.

While everyone in China was feeling the effect of the COVID-19 outbreak after one month of restrictions, it is almost certain that rural residents took the brunt of the economic and social impacts. Our analysis suggests a radical decline in employment in China's rural areas, due at least in part to restrictions preventing migrant workers from returning to work. Whereas urban, salary-earning workers were getting paid during the quarantine as required by China's state council, rural workers are almost never on salary-if they don't work, they don't get paid. If we conservatively assume 75% of rural migrants were confined to their villages, nearly 200 million rural individuals, who make an average of $500 every month, were not working. On a larger scale, this means that after one month of COVID-19 restrictions, China's economy lost around $100 billion in rural migrant worker wages alone. If we then add the lost wages of the large rural workforce that live and work near their home villages, the total economic loss is significantly higher than $100 billion and exceeds the highest estimate of the global economic impact of SARS -and it still does not account for all of the other losses to the economy.

At the same time, however, there have been some positive developments. As in urban areas, rural governments have taken measures to reduce the negative effects of COVID-19 by encouraging online schooling: 71% of village informants reported that students were attending classes online. However, we have yet to determine the quality and rate of their learning in online classes. Our follow-up study will tell us more.

Now we're left asking, what happens after all control measures are lifted and rural residents are forced to try to provide for their families with a significant loss in income?

Our team is in the process of analyzing the results from a follow-up phone call survey, which looks predominantly at how people have reacted to their economic losses now that the quarantine policies are ending. About half of the villages surveyed have reported average losses of 2000-5000 RMB ($282-$704) per family in the last month. As a result, families have been forced to decide what essential commodities to cut down on to survive on their now-limited funds. Our preliminary findings indicate that the majority of villagers are reducing their spending on food. In practice, this means that people are buying more grains and staples in bulk at low costs in lieu of more expensive goods like meat and produce. It also indicates that nutrition has declined-at least among a share of rural families. This is particularly concerning for families with young children, as REAP's past research shows that nutritional deficiencies in early childhood can significantly inhibit cognitive development, which is linked to adverse outcomes in later life.

As COVID-19 continues to spread across the globe, our findings have strong implications for other countries that have adopted similar lockdown policies. Workers around the world are facing potentially huge losses of income in the coming weeks and months. As governments implement COVID-19 control measures, they must also consider the needs of economically vulnerable communities, or face dramatic increases in economic hardship and poverty among the hardest-hit.
Scott Rozelle is a Senior Fellow and the co-director of the Rural Education Action Program (REAP) in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University; Heather Rahimi is the REAP Communications & Administrative Associate; Huan Wang is a REAP Research Scholar; Eve Dill is a REAP Social Science Research Professional. The analysis and opinions expressed in this piece are solely those of the authors. 1. The response rate was almost 100%, since the respondents were either the mother or the father of a rural student who had been part of a study that REAP had conducted over the past year or two. After answering the phone, our survey enumerators identified themselves as a team member who had been a part of their child's school activities in the recent past. Parents almost summarily agreed to talk to us. The schools in the original studies were randomly chosen and the one parent of the child from each school was randomly chosen, meaning we have a sample that is fairly representative of rural areas outside of the epicenter.

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Lockdowns are protecting China's rural families from COVID-19, but

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COVID-19 lockdowns have major impacts on migrant workers and supply chains that depend on them. Scott Rozelle and his team find that the lockdowns in China were successful in protecting rural areas from COVID infections, but that the cost was severe: Poor rural households cut down on education, nutrition, and health expenditures and lost around $100 billion in migrant worker wages.-Johan Swinnen, series co-editor and IFPRI Director General.

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Piece by Xiaobo Zhang, IFPRI

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After the COVID-19 outbreak began in December in Hubei Province, many Chinese villages were locked down to control the spread of the disease. As the epidemic has eased, China has only begun to lift some restrictions. The lockdowns have had a significant-and still not well-understood-impact on the agricultural sector. The effective supply of agricultural products forms the foundation for a stable, functioning economy and safeguards people's livelihoods. Thus, keeping agricultural enterprises running is an indispensable economic component in the ongoing battle against the epidemic-yet discussions of the outbreak have thus far devoted very little attention to the challenges they face.

There are two key problems now.

First, livestock farmers face severe pressure from supply and market disruptions, since animals need to eat every day and production cycles are short-daily for dairy, six weeks for chickens, and three months for pigs. In addition, the latter industry is still reeling from the 2019 outbreak of African swine fever that reduced the country's pig herd by more than 40% and drove up prices.

Second, the arrival of the spring plowing season is putting crop farmers in a bind. They urgently need to return to work. But the outbreak and ongoing control measures present many challenges. While manufacturing and service enterprises can flexibly adjust their production schedules to mitigate losses arising from the epidemic, the agricultural sector waits for no one. The normal phase of spring plowing includes the provision of labor, seed, fertilizer, pesticide, and agricultural machinery, all within a set time frame. Once smallholder farms miss the necessary services, such plowing and pollination, during the critical farming season, their income for the entire year will fall.

To understand the operational situation and demands of small, medium, and micro-enterprises impacted by the epidemic, the Enterprise Survey for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in China (ESIEC) project team conducted telephone and online follow-up interviews in February with enterprises surveyed over the past three years, which includes some enterprises in the agricultural sector. The survey probed their work resumption and production situation, the main difficulties they face, their efforts to adapt, demands for appropriate policies, and other issues.

Most Chinese farms are household smallholders and not registered as enterprises. Therefore, our survey does not capture the direct impact on crop farms. But other types of agribusinesses, such as mechanization services, pollination services, fertilizer dealers, and livestock farms, are covered in our sample and provide a broad picture of the impacts. As of Feb. 10, only 24.6% of agricultural businesses had resumed production. Since these businesses provide key inputs or services, interruptions in their services may negatively impact agricultural production.

In our analysis, we found that the main issue agricultural enterprises face is logistics disruption, especially shortages of raw materials and delivery problems. The stress is particularly acute for livestock farmers: 38.5% of them list "logistics disruption" as the biggest challenge, compared to 35.6% of all agricultural enterprises, 19.7% for non-agricultural enterprises, and 18.9% for the service sector.

Shortages of raw materials-in particular an inadequate supply of feed to livestock farmers-are the main result of these disruptions. While about 60% of the agricultural enterprises surveyed have encountered such shortages, they are most severe in the livestock farming sector-where feed shortages mean that animals and poultry may starve to death. With the preexisting problems and lingering high prices from the swine fever outbreak, the industry faces a crisis that could lead to more price spikes.

Overall, respondents' two most common complaints were that feed could not be delivered to the farms, and that trucks could not enter villages to collect their products.

On Feb. 13, meanwhile, a beekeeper in Sichuan Province committed suicide after his bees starved to death, as his truck of beehives was not allowed to travel across regions to provide pollination services as scheduled. The lack of pollination service may lead to lower yields for many crops.

What policies are needed to address these problems? More than any other industries, agricultural enterprises and particularly those in the livestock farming sector say they prefer rent reductions, financing support, and especially force majeure certification.

Our survey makes it clear that apart from the above options, a simpler and more direct demand often expressed by the entrepreneurs is that the lockdown be ended. The Chinese government has already rolled out a series of pertinent measures, including opening a green channel for feed, in order to effectively stabilize agricultural production. However, this has not yet been implemented in all areas. While all relief efforts are important, it is even more urgent that these measures be implemented at the grassroots level. While maintaining effective control of the epidemic, it should be of the greatest importance to encourage enterprises in rural areas to return to work.

Given that countries and regions around the world have also adopted lockdown policies, the survey results suggest that as spring arrives, agricultural enterprises in many places face serious logistics problems, and that livestock farming also faces challenges similar to China's-problems that may require government intervention to avert shortages or price spikes.
Xiaobo Zhang is a Senior Research Fellow with IFPRI's Development Strategy and Governance Division. He is also a Chair Professor of Economics at Peking University and a Visiting Fellow with the Center for Global Development and European Institute for Chinese Studies. The analysis and opinions expressed in this piece are solely those of the author.

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Chinese livestock farms struggle under COVID-19 restrictions

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After the COVID-19 outbreak began in December in Hubei Province, many Chinese villages were locked down to control the spread of the disease. As the epidemic has eased, China has only begun to lift some restrictions. The lockdowns have had a significant-and still not well-understood-impact on the agricultural sector.

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Piece in The Boston Globe by Kathleen Finlay, Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming

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I wish it didn't take a pandemic for people to realize that a homogeneous, centralized food system is a weak one.

What I'm hearing from the farmers and the food professionals that we support here at Glynwood, a nonprofit I run in the Hudson Valley, and our peers across the country, is that the demand for local food is through the roof. People are swarming (at a safe distance) the local grain stand at New York City's Greenmarket, and farmers are experiencing a huge uptick in sales of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) shares, like Chris Kurth at Siena Farms in Sudbury. His orders have been doubling every week, resulting in the most shares he has ever packed in the entire history of the farm. Meat sales at the farm that our organization operates here near Cold Spring, N.Y., have never been better.

No one likes to think about the damage that this virus is going to have globally, but one is comforted by thinking about the possibility of what my friend Molly Kile, an epidemiologist at Oregon State University, refers to as punctuated equilibrium. It's a term she is borrowing from evolutionary biology, and it argues against the idea that species undergo steady, uniform, and gradual adaptations. Rather, it posits that living things mostly enjoy a static state interrupted by spikes of large-scale change. This pandemic may very well be one of those spikes for us humans.

This is a moment when we need to learn lessons, and learn them fast, about how we cover the basic needs of our global population. I hope that one of the things we realize as a society is how we are too reliant on a handful of food producers that are mostly turning out products that harm us rather than heal us.

What does a decentralized, healthy regional food system look like? It looks a lot like what we are building here in the Hudson Valley. It looks like small to mid-size farms, maybe one acre, maybe 10, maybe a few hundred. They are run by people who care deeply about their community, about the health of the natural world, and about their peer producers.

On one call that we organized the other day, 70 local farmers participated. They wanted to connect with each other and share best resources: "What's the protocol around safety? How are you getting your food to your people? What are you doing with all your food meant to go to restaurants?" And most importantly, "How can we work together?"

That "how can we work together" is something that farmers have been practicing for centuries, but it has heartbreakingly become all but lost in our race toward profit. But I am hearing that "how can we work together" ethos loud and clear in emails and phone calls. A communal network - the exact opposite of the conventional food system controlled by very few - provides a type of economic immunity to those farmers. They will feel this crisis deeply, of course, and need federal and state assistance to continue to operate, but this is the kind of system that has a better chance of withstanding harsh shocks.

I helped distribute our meat shares this past week, driving around my community and leaving bags of gorgeous pasture-raised meat on my neighbors' doorsteps and porches. People came out of their homes and picked up the food and smiled and thanked me. It felt so great - so sane and joyful to connect once again through food during this unprecedented time of distance. The power of good, local food to bring us together has never been more important, and we need to support our regional farmers and local food system now more than ever.

* Give to a food assistance fund, like Glynwood's, that will get local food to people in need.

* Gift, buy, or donate a CSA share now from your local farm

* Support restaurants that use regional farms by buying gift certificates now or supporting their staff relief funds

* Tell your policy makers that regional farms and restaurants need support.

Kathleen Finlay is the president of the Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming and founder of Pleiades, a national network of women environmental leaders. Previously, she was the managing director of Harvard Medical School's Center for Health and the Global Environment.

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Coronavirus pandemic should shift our focus to a more locally sourced food supply - The Boston Globe

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I wish it didn't take a pandemic for people to realize that a homogeneous, centralized food system is a weak one. What I'm hearing from the farmers and the food professionals that we support here at Glynwood, a nonprofit I run in the Hudson Valley, and our peers across the country, is that the demand for local food is through the roof.

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Resource from PAHO

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Will Covid-19 increase hunger and poverty? What can South Africa do?

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Published March 25, 2020, by ​Stephen Devereux

On Monday evening, when President Ramaphosa announced a 21-day national lockdown to disrupt the spread of COVID-19, he also announced a set of interventions to " cushion our society " against the economic and human consequences of the impending lockdown. These interventions include a Solidarity Fund financed mainly by voluntary donations, a Temporary Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) for employees of companies in distress, and a tax subsidy for low-income private sector workers.

These and other mitigation measures are necessary and welcome. But there is a sense that the government is more concerned with protecting the economy (R3 billion of funding for vulnerable firms from the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC)) than protecting the wellbeing of the most vulnerable people (just R150 million of seed capital from the government for the Solidarity Fund).

Will informal sector workers be covered by the safety net?

In his speech the President mentioned business, companies, firms, SMEs and the private sector 35 times. He mentioned the informal sector just once: "A safety net is being developed to support persons in the informal sector, where most businesses will suffer as a result of this shutdown." The Rupert and Oppenheimer families each donated R1 billion towards this safety net, "to assist small businesses and their employees". But the reality is that the most vulnerable working-age adults are unemployed, self-employed, students, or working in precarious employment in the service sector (cleaners, waitrons, car guards, etc.). Most have no access to social grants or the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF). Will these people be reached by the COVID-19 safety net?

Domestic workers and seasonal farm workers, among others, will effectively become unemployed during the lockdown. Some employers will do the right thing and pay their workers for the days they are unable to work in the coming weeks, but many will not. With reduced income and no meals at school for their children to supplement meals at home (see below), the food security and nutrition of all family members will certainly suffer.

The President asked South Africans not to act "in their own selfish interests" during this crisis. But tougher action is called for. Some firms are already being investigated for hiking prices to profiteer from panic buying. All employers must be compelled to continue employing workers on full pay during the lockdown, and must not be allowed to either fire workers or leave them sitting at home with no pay. Employers that genuinely struggle to cover wage costs should receive assistance from the IDC and TERS. Employers that can afford to pay their workers but choose not to do so should be reported for non-compliance, prosecuted, fined and ordered to pay compensation.

Children

The President did not mention children once in his speech on Monday. 12 million children receive the Child Support Grant every month. We know that the CSG is not sufficient to meet the child's nutritional needs. One in four children in South Africa are already malnourished. This statistic shames us, as an upper-middle-income country, at the best of times. COVID-19 threatens to make it even worse.

More than 9 million schoolchildren from poor families receive meals every school day. With all schools in South Africa now closed, that vital source of food has stopped indefinitely. In the Western Cape, the Peninsula School Feeding Association responded by raising additional funds so that their food handlers can prepare a free nutritious daily lunch for 4,200 children at community kitchens around Cape Town. This is a commendable response, but it will reach only a tiny fraction of needy children, in a relatively privileged metropolitan area.

What more should be done? The National School Nutrition Programme could continue to provide meals to poor children and their families throughout the country, either for collection from schools or served from mobile kitchens located temporarily in disadvantaged communities. The Department of Social Development could authorise a double payment of social grants in April, to boost the purchasing power of millions of families who depend on these grants to supplement their inadequate incomes - which in many cases will fall to zero income in the coming weeks.

Emergency Hardship Fund

The Solidarity Fund is necessary and will make some difference. But it is not enough. It has too many objectives - "focus efforts to combat the spread of the virus, help us to track the spread, care for those who are ill and support those whose lives are disrupted" - and not enough money - just R150m from Government.

A designated Emergency Hardship Fund is needed that will deliver an effective and guaranteed safety net for those whose livelihoods will be cut off during the lockdown. Instead of putting in seed money and soliciting donations, the government must guarantee to replace the lost income of all individuals who face the prospect of "no work no pay" at least until Friday 17 April.

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Will COVID-19 increase poverty and hunger? What can South Africa do?

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Published March 25, 2020, by ​Stephen Devereux On Monday evening, when President Ramaphosa announced a 21-day national lockdown to disrupt the spread of COVID-19, he also announced a set of interventions to " cushion our society " against the economic and human consequences of the impending lockdown.

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Piece in DevPolicyBlog by Robyn Alders, Chatham House Centre on Global Health Security

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Devpolicy Blog from the Development Policy Centre

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Few would question the urgent need to support human health responses to COVID-19 in our region; it is the right thing to do. However, while Australians may feel secure in the knowledge that this pandemic will not adversely affect national food security, the same cannot be said for many low- and middle-income countries.

Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, over 10 per cent of people globally were undernourished and approximately 30 per cent deficient in key micronutrients. Malnutrition impacts negatively on the immune system, placing the malnourished at increased risk of poorer outcomes when infected by COVID-19. Additionally, malnutrition is more prevalent in resource-limited settings and is felt unevenly within households, frequently affecting young children, women of reproductive age and the elderly. Reports from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and UNICEF in 2019 highlighted that food and nutrition insecurity are increasingly real for millions of people. Significantly, food and nutrition security were also emphasised as a vital component of health in the 2019 United Nations Declaration on University Health Coverage. Malnutrition has multiple drivers, from poverty to climate change to food system failures to deliver safe, nourishing, affordable food. However, chronic under funding of the agricultural sector by both national governments and the international donor community is compounding the problem and will exacerbate the short- and long-term consequences of this coronavirus pandemic.

On the animal and plant health front, the services charged with disease prevention and control were tackling multiple challenges well before the coronavirus pandemic. For example, the spread of African swine fever (ASF) is causing huge mortalities in pigs and impacting severely on household food security and social obligations in Southeast Asia. The spread of this disease, for which there is no vaccine, was made easier due to the inadequate control of classical swine fever (CSF) which spread across the region over the past two decades. Despite the existence of a vaccine against CSF, inadequate funding of veterinary services prevented the effective implementation of CSF vaccination campaigns, rendering farmers accustomed to increasingly high mortality in their pig herds. When ASF arrived, all the farmers saw was more dead pigs, which, sadly, was nothing new.

The latest, and hugely worrying, plant health threat to reach Southeast Asia is the Fall Armyworm. This insect pest has eaten its way across South Asia and Southeast Asia, decimating crops leading to shortfalls in food for people and feed for intensively raised animals and has now arrived in Far North Queensland.

As countries in the region implement coronavirus control strategies, what will this mean for animal and plant health? National budgets that were already under strain will likely see movement of funds into the human health sector, further stripping sectors such as agriculture of much-needed funds. During the high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 pandemic, the bulk of funding went to the human health sector and, to this day, H5N1 remains endemic in poultry in many Southeast Asian countries. Will animal health teams vaccinating against economically important diseases such as CSF and Newcastle disease (which is clinically indistinguishable from HPAI) have to cease work due to lack of funding to keep vaccinators safe and animals alive? Will plant health teams undertaking surveillance activities to determine the extent of spread of Fall Armyworm in nearby countries have to cease their activities - whether due to COVID-19 safety measures, or funding cuts, or both - enabling the insects' relentless march eastward to continue unchecked? Quite likely. How can we learn the lessons of past pandemics such that we commit to adequately investing in animal and plant health and food safety along value chains? If we had taken this seriously after the avian influenza pandemic, we may have not only reduced the impact of coronavirus control activities on food security, we may have prevented it entirely.

More broadly, as we count the costs of inadequate disease surveillance and preparedness in the human health system, we must also factor in the drivers associated with the agricultural sector that facilitated the heightened impact of the disease. As a result of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV) and now COVID-19, we are all well aware of the ability of viruses that may cause no disease in animals to jump across to humans via the slaughter, sale, preparation and consumption of food from non-domesticated animal hosts. Consumer concerns in many countries in the region regarding a lack of access to affordable animal-source food (due to high animal mortality and market failure) and a lack of confidence in food safety (e.g. worries about food contamination with hormones, antibiotics or pesticide residues) frequently underlie preferences for non-domesticated animals sold through informal markets. Understanding of, and responses to, the drivers behind consumer and farmer behaviour are yet to be adequately researched and addressed.

Human health is intimately linked with animal, plant and environmental health. Systems thinking using One Health and Planetary Health lenses will be crucial to redesigning global and national systems that can keep us safe, well-nourished, healthy and actively contributing to community well-being. This period of forced physical isolation provides an opportunity to reflect on the systems that underpin our society and our vision for a sustainable development. What will be our vision of sustainable food security and nutritious food systems and their contribution to human health going forward? And what will we do to make our plans a reality at home and abroad?
Dr Robyn Alders is an Honorary Professor at the Development Policy Centre, ANU. She is also a Senior Consulting Fellow at the Centre on Global Health Security, Chatham House, UK, and Chair of the Kyeema Foundation, Brisbane, Australia. This post is part of the #COVID-19 and international development series.

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COVID-19: exposing shortfalls in support to human, animal and plant health in our region - Devpolicy Blog from the Development Policy Centre

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Few would question the urgent need to support human health responses to COVID-19 in our region; it is the right thing to do. However, while Australians may feel secure in the knowledge that this pandemic will not adversely affect national food security, the same cannot be said for many low- and middle-income countries.

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Ethiopia where major of the population and economy depend on agriculture will be affected more due to COVID-19., Because cropping season is started in this season, For example I am working on agricultural research but I failed to select sites for my trails for this year. Distribution of inputs, (fertilizers and seed), training of experts and farmers on new technologies are stopped . So this needs critical intervention otherwise this impact more critical next year if the agriculture is more affected. Therefore my question is what type intervations the government or the countries should use to overcome the problem otherwise the problem will be worse that this year?

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Chefs initiative from SDG2 Advocacy Hub

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This week, the Chefs' Manifesto is joining #TogetherAtHome, a virtual series initiated by Global Citizen helping raise awareness and action to support the great work of the World Health Organisation and the fight against COVID-19. The SDG2 Hub is working with chefs around the world are helping to encourage people to stay home and practice social distancing - the most important thing we can all do to beat coronavirus- and talking about the power of food to connect us and keep us healthy. Through Instagram Lives, chefs are sharing delicious kid friendly, cupboard recipes and their tips for fermentation alongside artists Chris Martin and John Legend, to name a few.
Join us! Here's how:
CONCEPT:

Film a short 40 minute cooking video with this suggested run of show:
5 - 10 mins - Set up/introduction

Introduce yourself and your focus (food waste, livelihoods). Try to mention Chefs' Manifesto if possible, maybe give a shoutout to Chefs' Manifesto podcast.

Where are you? How is the coronavirus impacting you? How are chefs responding?

20 mins - Chef talking through recipe
5 mins - Expert, spokesperson from NGO or local actor (farmer etc.) talking to what they're doing on coronavirus, how this is impacting food systems etc.
5 min - Call to action Check out these steps to help set up for #TogetherAtHome IG Live.
KEY MESSAGES:

These are they key messages you need to get across:

#TogetherAtHome with Global Citizen is helping to raise awareness and action to support the great work of WHO and the fight against the Coronavirus

Excited to join #TogetherAtHome series and highlight how we can all support global health. Practicing social distancing is the most important thing we can all do. Please be responsible and stay at home!

If you want to find further ways to help out & offer support, head to www.globalcitizen.org/coronavirus

I'm advocating for good food for all at this critical time.

As a chef, I'm seeing the impact of the coronavirus on food and food systems with restaurants closing, empty supermarket shelves and farmers not knowing what to do with extra produce. Making sure everyone has good food, especially now for healthy people, is key. Good food starts with farmers, it's nutritious and saves lives.

SOCIAL MEDIA:

Find below resources for download to promote and raise profile of #TogetherAtHome.

Accounts to tag: @WHO @glblctzn @chefsmanifesto

Hashtags: #TogetherAtHome #ChefsManifesto

LINE UP:

This week's #TogetherAtHome cooking sessions include:

Interested in joining? Sign up for a slot here! Check out this brief to host your own #TogetherAtHome.

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This week, the Chefs' Manifesto is joining #TogetherAtHome, a virtual series initiated by Global Citizen helping raise awareness and action to support the great work of the World Health Organisation and the fight against COVID-19.

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Piece in Fast Company by Hajir Maalim, Action Against Hunger

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Due to Antarctica's extreme winter, which includes four months of total darkness, polar explorers endured intense confinement in close quarters for long periods of time.

American pioneer Richard Byrd explained, "little things ... have the power to drive even the most disciplined ... to the edge of insanity. The ones who survive with a measure of happiness are those who can live profoundly off their intellectual resources, as hibernating animals live off their fat."

How did the Antarctic explorers of the early 1900s survive tedium in the time long before the internet?

Music

Music was vital to the sanity and welfare of the explorers. "It is necessary to be cut off from civilization ... to realize fully the power music has to recall the past...to soothe the present and give hope for the future," said one of the youngest members of the Terra Nova Expedition (1910-1913).

The Scottish National Antarctic Expedition (1902-04) included an official bagpiper. Admiral Byrd brought a phonograph to the Advance Base in 1934, calling music his "only real luxury."

When abandoning the slowly sinking ship Endurance, Ernest Shackleton's men were allowed to carry only two pounds of personal effects. But Shackleton insisted that meteorologist Leonard Hussey take his six-pound banjo along, saying, "It's vital mental medicine, and we shall need it."

Books played an huge role in the lives of polar explorers. The library aboard Endurance included plays, poetry, books on exploration, the Encyclopedia Britannica, and novels like The Brothers Karamazov. When the ship went down, Shackleton rescued a Rudyard Kipling poem. He tore the first page out of a bible given to him by Queen Alexandra, abandoning the rest of the heavy text, though a crew member secretly saved it.

Poetry, one explorer explained, "was useful, because it gave one something to learn by heart and repeat during the blank hour ... when the idle mind is all too apt to think ... of purely imaginary grievances."

Some men even attempted to learn a language. Roald Amundsen, the leader of the Norwegian Fram Expedition (1910-1914), studied Russian grammar. While others quickly finished their lighter stories, Amundsen's reading "had the advantage of being incomparably stiffer. Russian verbs are uncommonly difficult of digestion, and not to be swallowed in a hurry."

Diary writing

Daily diaries were extremely common among polar explorers. First, men were aware accounts of their experiences could have monetary value in the future. Second, diaries served as records and keepsakes for their families. Third, as many days tended to run together, diaries became a way to differentiate one day from another. Finally, as one explorer explained, "A diary in this life is one of the only ways in which a man can blow off steam."

Expedition newspapers

There is a long tradition of polar explorers creating newspapers for themselves. Reports on the weather or accounts of visits to penguin colonies were interspersed with short stories, poetry, interviews, crossword puzzles, and word games. They were illustrated with both humorous and artistic drawings. Over time, these texts took on a great deal of sexual content, including lewd jokes and fantasies.

As one explorer explained, "The importance of not allowing any sense of depression to become a part of the atmosphere of our life was clear to all."

Games

Carsten Borchgrevink, the leader of the Southern Cross Expedition (1898-1900), said, "The sameness of those cold, dark nights attacks the minds of men like a sneaking evil spirit. We found that ... playing chess and cards were very valuable pastimes." Sometimes men "shouted and jumped during their game and it is a wonder they did not upset the little board on which they played."

Chess was also king on the Terra Nova Expedition (1910-1913). According to Robert Falcon Scott, "Our most popular game for evening recreation is chess; so many players have developed that our two sets of chessmen are inadequate."

Food

For Antarctic explorers, almost all food was dried or consumed from tins. Hoosh, a stew made from a mix of dried meat and fat, called pemmican, thickened with cereal, provided many of the calories of the earliest expeditions.

To break up the monotonous cuisine, men experimented with new foods, such as penguin or seal meat. In a few cases, such as the Fram expedition and the Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition, they even ate their dogs.

The often lackluster fare meant the men were often obsessed with food. Many of their conversations revolved around their ideal meals from home. In 1934, Byrd wrote in his diary, "I found the cook book! ... The whoop of joy I uttered sounded so loud that I was actually embarrassed. ... No book washed ashore to a castaway could have been more avidly studied."

Alcohol

Polar expeditions were usually very well stocked with beer, wine, and spirits.

There was debate over the value of alcohol on these expeditions-no one wanted to encourage drunkenness, and alcohol could be dangerous in the field. But Amundsen, the first man to the South Pole, felt differently: "An occasional glass of wine or a tot of spirits were things that we all, without exception, were very glad of. ... Personally, I regard alcohol, used in moderation, as a medicine in the Polar regions. ... Two men who have fallen out a little in the course of the week are reconciled at once by the scent of rum."

Brains or brawn?

So what kind of man survived the best under severe isolation? According to Apsley Cherry-Garrard of the Terra Nova Expedition (1910-1913), "The men with the greatest store of nervous energy came best through this expedition ... their strength of mind triumphed over their weakness of body. If you want a good polar traveler, get a man without too much muscle ... and let his mind be on wires-of steel."

Daniella McCahey is a history lecturer at the University of Idaho.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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7 things that polar explorers used to stay sane for months of isolation that work in quarantine

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Due to Antarctica's extreme winter, which includes four months of total darkness, polar explorers endured intense confinement in close quarters for long periods of time. American pioneer Richard Byrd explained, "little things ... have the power to drive even the most disciplined ... to the edge of insanity.

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Podcast episode from Hacking Hunger with Chase Sova, WFP USA

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Photo: WFP/Saikat Mojumder

Entering 2020, the number of hungry and malnourished people around the world was already on the rise due to an increase in violent conflict and climate change impacts. Today, over 800 million people face chronic undernourishment and more than 100 million people are in need of lifesaving food assistance. The novel Coronavirus, COVID-19, risks undermining the efforts of humanitarian and food security organizations seeking to reverse these trends. As former International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) Director General Shenggen Fan, writes, "COVID-19 is a health crisis. But it could also lead to a food security crisis if proper measures are not taken."
Every major outbreak in recent memory-Ebola, SARS, MERS-has had both direct and indirect negative impacts on food security. On this episode of Hacking Hunger, Dr. Chase Sova, WFP USA senior director of public policy and research, tells us what the experts are saying about the likelihood and nature of such impacts from COVID-19.

1. COVID-19 poses a great threat to nations suffering from pervasive poverty and poor healthcare infrastructure.

COVID-19 poses considerable risks to already vulnerable populations living in countries with severe development deficits, limited government capacity and, importantly, poor healthcare infrastructure. While the coronavirus has been slow to reach Sub-Saharan Africa, most experts agree that its impact there is imminent (and may already be understated given the lack of testing capability there). As of March 16th, 2020, 25 countries in Africa are reporting confirmed COVID-19 cases. While the capacity for testing on the continent has increased from two countries to 39 since early February, health infrastructure is still lacking.

"Our greatest concern is the potential for the virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems," says World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. There is also considerable risk to refugee populations. Today, more people are displaced from their homes because of violence, conflict and persecution than any other time since the Second World War. For those that have left their countries, many of are living in camps. Refugee populations living in close proximity to one another and lacking adequate medical facilities are at an especially elevated risk from COVID-19.

2. COVID-19 poses a great threat to nations lacking robust social safety nets.

Safety net systems are critical lifelines to help stem the negative economic and nutritional impacts of COVID-19. As schools closed in the United States, for example, Congress and the Executive Branch stepped up to offer increased support for food-based safety nets like SNAP (formerly "food stamps"). This was done, in part, to help parents cover the costs of meals that students-some 30 million utilizing free and reduced meals-were no longer receiving at school. Many developing countries, however, lack safety net systems to fill that void.

In fact, less than 20 percent of people living in low-income countries have access to social protections of any kind, even fewer have access to food-based safety nets.

3. COVID-19 may prove especially deadly for people suffering from chronic or acute hunger or malnourishment.

Africa's 1.2 billion people face the highest percentage of undernourishment on the planet, affecting over 20 percent of the population. The COVID-19 virus has proved especially deadly for those who are elderly or whose health is already compromised. This likely includes people suffering from malnourishment.

In a recent interview with Aljazeera regarding the virus' potential spread into North Korea, Dr. John Linton of the International Health Care Center at Yonsei University in South Korea said, "If [coronavirus] got into North Korea, where there are a lot of other underlying deficiencies and lacking healthcare, the death rate would go up quite a bit. With their general population suffering from malnutrition, it would be much, much worse than China."

For example, it is believed that the survival rate of patients suffering from Ebola was affected by what healthcare workers call "preceding nutritional status" or the baseline nutritional health of people affected by the virus.

4. COVID-19 may cause breaks in food supply chains, food shortages and food price spikes.

So far, the novel coronavirus has not shown a major direct impact on the supply or price of staple foods in places affected by the virus or globally. During the SARS and MERS outbreaks in China there was also minimal disruption to markets and prices locally, owing to sufficient buffer stocks and measures taken to ensure the continued flow of goods. This has not always been the case, however, in sub-Saharan African.

The Ebola outbreak in 2014, for example, led to dramatic increases in the prices of staple foods in countries impacted in West Africa. Furthermore, the food price-spikes of 2007/8 demonstrate that export restrictions, market speculation and panic behavior were, in part, responsible for the dramatic increase in global food prices in that period-measures we are not protected against today.

In many developing countries, millions of families already spend upwards of half of their income on food in normal circumstances.

Countries that rely heavily on imported food to meet demand, including sub-Saharan Africa, face disproportionate risk from supply chain failures, especially in the face of border crossing closures. Finally, it is the impacts of farmers leaving their fields fallow (or facing delays in planting and harvesting) because of sickness and breakdowns in non-food supply chains, like fertilizer and other critical inputs, that may ultimately most impact developing country economies.

5. COVID-19 may cause the global economy to slow or fall into recession exacerbating extreme poverty and hunger.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has dramatically revised their projections for global GDP growth this year, calling COVID-19 and its impacts on markets "the gravest threat since the global financial crisis" in 2008. As we know from the latest edition of the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report (the "SOFI"), economic decline has major impacts on poverty and food insecurity. "Uneven pace of economic recovery and continuing poor economic performance in many countries after the 2008-2009 global economic downturn are also undermining efforts to end hunger and malnutrition," write the SOFI authors. "Hunger has increased in many countries where the economy has slowed down or contracted, mostly in middle-income countries."

Economic decline, poverty and food insecurity often accompany one another. Global food security programs could face additional risks if humanitarian and development resources are diverted away from them to combat COVID-19.

6. What the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is doing in response.

The U.N. World Food Programme, the world's largest hunger-fighting organization, works in some of the most difficult places on earth to provide food assistance to people suffering from the impacts of man-made conflict, climate-related extreme weather events and other shocks. The U.N. World Food Programme serves populations that will potentially experience the greatest risks from COVID-19 and that have the least capacity to cope. As U.N. World Food Programme Executive Director David Beasely said in an interview regarding COVID-19's impact on the organization's headquarters in Rome, Italy, "Look we're in 83 countries, we're in war and conflict and we keep people alive. We can't shut down headquarters for any reason."

The U.N. World Food Programme is committed to maintaining and, where necessary, scaling up its food assistance operations to reach the 86 million people who require its help. As it did in response to the Ebola outbreak in 2014 and again in 2018, the U.N. World Food Programme will continue to leverage its unmatched logistical expertise and field presence to closely monitoring global food supplies and prices, preposition food stocks to priority operations, and support WHO and governments with supply chain expertise.

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Learn more about WFP's COVID-19 response here.

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COVID-19 and the 5 Major Threats it Poses to Global Food Security

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Photo: WFP/Saikat Mojumder Entering 2020, the number of hungry and malnourished people around the world was already on the rise due to an increase in violent conflict and climate change impacts. Today, over 800 million people face chronic undernourishment and more than 100 million people are in need of lifesaving food assistance.

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Piece by Erin Biehl, Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future

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BALTIMORE- Feb. 27, 202 0. In only a few months, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has spread from China to 37 different countries. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the pathogen had infected 81,109 people worldwide as of February 26. The epidemic has had rippling effects on food access and availability in China. While news coverage doesn't and can't tell the full story, it can provide useful insight. By tracing the news coverage of the effects of COVID-19 on the food system in China, we get a sense of how important it is to consider food systems as a critical component of disaster preparedness and resilience planning.

To be resilient, a food system needs to be able to absorb, respond to, and recover from shocks and stresses. COVID-19 is a shock, because it emerged and spread rapidly, rather than a slow-burning disruption like a multi-year drought. How well China - and any country - will be able to provide safe, accessible, and available food both during and in the aftermath of COVID-19 will depend on its resilience.
How has the epidemic affected food access and affordability in China?
The Chinese National Bureau of Statistics reported earlier this month that the Consumer Price Index, which measures inflation, hit an eight-year high in January 2020, with food prices more than 20 percent higher in January 2020 than in January of the previous year. This could be due to many factors, including hoarding by households and food distribution interruptions. Especially in the immediate aftermath of the initial outbreak and impending quarantine, there were several reports of people rushing to grocery stores to stock up on emergency food. I also read that some retailers started price-gouging in response to the rush of "panic buying" shoppers, which can also make food less affordable.

The quarantine of millions of people in China, along with road closures and public transit shutdowns, also made it more difficult to physically get to stores to buy food. In one instance, I read about a household that couldn't get to their regular (larger) grocery store, so they started walking to a local, smaller store to get food. Having alternative food outlets like that, which are accessible in diverse ways, is critical for food system resilience.

China's retail food delivery sector has demonstrated another resilience quality, adaptability. Mobile food delivery services have seen a meteoric rise since the outbreak began. Some food delivery companies quickly adapted to the quarantine by developing new ways for food couriers to deliver without physically contacting customers. Of course, despite a rare instance of a food delivery robot, food delivery still depends on humans, who have varying willingness and ability to travel in order to prepare and deliver food. In addition, this type of service may not address food access challenges for people who can't afford food delivery. If food delivery is "the" solution, brick and mortar restaurants and retailers whose service models may not be flexible enough to adapt may be left out. Some of these retailers in China were consequently less resilient and closed, at least temporarily. If closures are prolonged enough, permanent retail closures from lost business can affect long-term food access.
How has the epidemic affected food availability?
Shouguang, a city in eastern China's Shandong Province, has received focused media attention lately because it is a major vegetable production and distribution hub for the country and is located hundreds of miles from Wuhan City, where the outbreak first occurred. Having a major food-production and distribution hub geographically separate from the epicenter of a disease outbreak was beneficial in this instance, as Shouguang farmers and truck drivers have been able to continue producing and sending food to Wuhan City. If the outbreak had occurred first in Shouguang, we likely would have seen even more challenges with food availability across the country. Thus, having diversity in the location of food producing areas across a country, when possible, has the potential to provide more protection against future events that hit high food-producing areas directly.

Despite efforts to increase production and distribution in places like Shouguang, the closure of many marketplaces and transportation restrictions across the country has left producers with limited places to sell their products, limited places to get important inputs like animal feed to produce more livestock, and no easy way to transport food inputs and products. All of these factors can result in reduced availability of certain food items for consumers, not to mention impacts on livelihoods for these food system workers and the health of livestock.

Transportation restrictions have also decreased labor availability across the food supply chain, and consequently, food availability for consumers. With infection and quarantine, there are fewer truck drivers available to deliver food from production areas to city centers, as well as unload imported food at shipping ports. If there is enough redundancy in a labor force, in this case meaning there are a sufficient number of trained laborers available to perform the same task, a labor shortage's impact is more limited. As more people are quarantined and infected, and as some are obliged to stay home to care for family members and children home from school -- and the longer that travel restrictions delay transport, timely food distribution and sufficient food availability becomes more and more difficult to achieve.
How has the Chinese government responded?
A government's response to an epidemic like this also has implications for food access and availability. In the weeks after the first reported cases of COVID-19 infection in humans, the Chinese government initiated a series of actions to protect food supply in the affected areas as well as to protect the health of its citizens. Some actions included closing live animal markets and banning wild animal trade and consumption. They also ordered food Chinese producers to increase food production and animal slaughter, ordered that no slaughterhouses be closed, and that food be sent from producing hubs like Shouguang to the most affected places. In addition, they exempted food delivery trucks from road restrictions to continue the flow of food. Finally, the government fined some businesses who were price-gouging and making food less affordable.
What can the food systems community learn from the coronavirus crisis?
Clearly, any infectious disease outbreak is not just a public health issue, but a food systems issue - and a complex one at that. Time will tell what the long-term impact of COVID-19 on China's food system is, not to mention its global impacts, given both the international spread of illness, and the intertwined nature of global food systems. By looking at the crisis through a food systems lens, we are able to see how the components of the food system and the epidemic interact and create feedback loops. Decisions made in the days after an outbreak can have longer term impacts, which then have other impacts, and so on. The plans a government, business, community, or individual puts in place to prepare for and respond to such events should intentionally consider the potential impacts on the food system. If the outbreak hits hard in the U.S., our food distribution systems will be largely unprepared. There's a lot that can be done, and we can expect the types of actions to be different in some ways from China's.

I've seen a rising interest among local governments in the U.S. to more intentionally include food systems in their disaster preparedness and recovery planning. I'm currently co-leading a team which is working with selected U.S. cities to focus on their food-related disaster and resilience planning. (This work builds on our previous work on the issue, including development of the Baltimore food resilience report from 2017, a joint effort between CLF and the Baltimore Office of Sustainability, and several related analyses. We're also working on indicators and several other projects to help understand and protect food security following disasters.) This work comes not a moment too soon, and will bring even more understanding of how to make our food systems more resilient to future crises.
Image by Huangdan2060, January 2020. Xinhuang Dong Autonomous County, Hunan, China. The banner is reminding people to pay attention to the epidemic situation and care for life.

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What the Coronavirus in China Shows Us About Food System Resilience

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BALTIMORE- Feb. 27, 202 0. In only a few months, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has spread from China to 37 different countries. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the pathogen had infected 81,109 people worldwide as of February 26. The epidemic has had rippling effects on food access and availability in China.

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Piece in The Hill by Roni Neff and Erin Biehl, Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future

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Shoppers flooded grocery stores this week, preparing for the spread of coronavirus, (COVID-19) and the possibility of being stuck at home for weeks. recommend stocking at least two weeks' worth of food, which might be easy for some, but could be extremely challenging for others. COVID-19 threatens to worsen existing inequities. As the country responds to the evolving situation, we should focus on ensuring food affordability and accessibility.

Even before COVID-19, about 11 percent of U.S. households were considered food insecure, meaning they didn't have consistent access to sufficient food. COVID-19 will increase this proportion, for reasons including lost income and food price rises resulting from stockpiling and supply chain interruptions.

Government relief to individuals and businesses should target support for those in greatest need, particularly workers with lower incomes. Paid sick days are essential because people need to be able to make decisions about whether to miss work without fearing financial catastrophe.

It is deeply concerning that in spite of the virus, the U.S. government has confirmed its plans to change the eligibility requirements of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the primary federal food safety net program, potentially depriving hundreds of thousands of people of benefits starting April 1. SNAP and other food assistance programs should receive expanded funds to reach more people and, if food prices spike, should increase benefits.

In anticipation of increasing need, hunger relief organizations, such as food banks and pantries, are activating emergency plans. These groups often operate on a shoestring, and now they face dramatically increased demand, plus withdrawal of many older adult volunteers who are at heightened risk from infection. Food businesses may be pressed to find the surplus food, funds and labor to maintain food donation programs.

To help food relief organizations, cash contributions - rather than donating cans or dried goods - can more efficiently shore up food stocks. Federal and state governments should provide substantial emergency financial support and support efforts to align food distributions with areas of greatest need.

In addition to affordability concerns, COVID-19 creates new food access challenges for those under quarantine and who have become ill. This is in addition to the ongoing struggles of those who live in areas without nearby grocery stores, people with disabilities or chronic illnesses, older adults living alone and those reliant on public transit. Where support networks are good, friends, families, neighbors and local volunteers will pitch in to bring groceries. But that's not enough.

In many cases, grocery delivery is the best option. Those under quarantine may need subsidized deliveries. SNAP benefits could also help pick up the tab in the handful of states participating in the new Online Purchasing Pilot , which could be expanded in the crisis.

Non-profit delivery services like Meals on Wheels play an important role, too. I ncreased resources could expand their reach and support their ability to provide clients with extra nonperishables. Their volunteer models and their engagement with food recipients will come under pressure in the face of COVID-19. In some cases emergency measures are being activated, such as food delivery by the National Guard . Everyone working in food delivery and other parts of the gig economy must be protected, including through paid sick time, protective equipment and precautions such as "no-contact drop-off."

Meanwhile, students reliant on free school meals will need alternate food sources if their schools close and their families can't afford to meet the extra need. Of course, school closures also mean many food and agriculture are home and that affects their income and the food supply chain. We welcome the USDA's announcement that it is willing to allow schools to use the summer meals program to offer grab-and-go meals during school closures.

Food security is often treated as a niche issue, an individual concern, or a matter for charity. But as COVID-19 unfolds, policymakers and businesses are recognizing its centrality and discussing and implementing food policy options that were recently considered impossible.

A silver lining of this challenging situation is that multiple food businesses, including McDonalds, Darden Restaurants and Starbucks, have started to offer paid sick leave. We need others to step up, along with government policy to spread the benefit and provide further support to workers and businesses.

As the pandemic unfolds it's imperative we do all we can to protect ourselves, our families and wider society - particularly older adults, those in insecure jobs or with low incomes, people in ill health, and anyone lacking support and a safety net. If, in doing so, we can also implement the kinds of changes we've long needed to protect the population and increase the resilience and equity of the food system, this will be an added and lasting benefit. There is no time like the present.
is an Associate Professor in Environmental Health & Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a Program Director at the school's Center for a Livable Future . is a Program Officer at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. The views expressed are their own and not the views of The Johns Hopkins University.

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We must shore up access to food as COVID-19 takes hold

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Shoppers flooded grocery stores this week, preparing for the spread of coronavirus, (COVID-19) and the possibility of being stuck at home for weeks. recommend stocking at least two weeks' worth of food, which might be easy for some, but could be extremely challenging for others. COVID-19 threatens to worsen existing inequities.

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Resources from the Alliance to End Hunger

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As the COVID-19 crisis continues to develop, the Hunger Free Communities Network needs support to maintain and expand services. ALL sites need financial donations, cleaning supplies, and volunteers. You can find the location of HFCs in your area by referring to the HFC Map here.

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Resources from CGIAR

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The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to spread rapidly. Since its start in China in December, the outbreak has spread to more than 100 countries, endangering the health and livelihoods of millions. To contain the pandemic, many cities and regions across the world have been shut down, putting a halt to day-to-day activities.

As Western economies struggle with difficult decisions - it is those in the global South that are most at risk. Economies that are dependent on tourism, trade and foreign investment have fewer options at their disposal.

An urgent and coordinated global response is needed - from the global to the local level to protect populations - and especially the most vulnerable. Food security is fragile under normal circumstances and must not be ignored as part of a One Health strategy.

CGIAR, as the world's largest public research network on food, land and water systems, provides evidence to help understand and address threats to food, nutrition and water security from the COVID-19 pandemic, such as:

The food system has been significantly affected, and these impacts will grow if processing enterprises cannot restart production in a near future;

Production of staple food crops such as wheat and rice, and vegetables will be affected if the outbreak continues into critical planting periods;

Domestic and international trade disruptions may trigger food price panics;

Restrictions on mobility may lead to labor shortages;

Disruption of farmers' cropping schedules will likely increase water demand for irrigation and, in some regions, intensify risks and tensions associated with water scarcity.

CGIAR will make available its latest research and analysis on COVID-19 to support authorities and the public in making informed decisions during the current crisis. In the research and news featured below, CGIAR scientists provide evidence-based advice and recommendations on:

Introducing enabling policies for spring planting and increasing support for production entities;

Ensuring the smooth flow of trade and making full use of the international market as a vital tool to secure food supply and demand;

Ensuring smooth logistical operations of regional agricultural and food supply chains;

Monitoring food prices and strengthening market supervision;

Protecting vulnerable groups and providing employment services to migrant workers;

Explaining issues related to wet-markets and livestock-wildlife interface and how to mitigate future zoonotic disease and supporting one-health approaches;

Regulating wild food markets to curb the source of the disease;

Measuring impact on small and medium-sized businesses;

Analyzing how much global poverty will increase because of COVID-19;

Demonstrating the importance of reliable clean water for reducing the spread of the virus;

Increasing resilience and mitigation of social disruptions by increasing local food productivity and water access.

Photo credit: Eneas De Troya/Flickr.

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The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to spread rapidly. Since its start in China in December, the outbreak has spread to more than 100 countries, endangering the health and livelihoods of millions. To contain the pandemic, many cities and regions across the world have been shut down, putting a halt to day-to-day activities.

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Resources from IFAD

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COVID-19 is the infectious disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, the most recently discovered coronavirus. The outbreak that began in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, has rapidly spread across the world, profoundly disrupting fundamental activities we all depend on, including agriculture and food systems - and endangering all those who depend on it as their livelihood.
The coronavirus pandemic is a global emergency affecting all countries, requiring immediate and sustained international action. While mitigating the terrible human and economic toll worldwide is rightly uppermost in our minds, we are also gravely concerned about the underlying problems this emergency exposes, especially for those most at risk for severe consequences - older people, poor households, the undernourished, and those who live in remote rural areas without access to services or help. These problems heighten the risks of the current pandemic and must not be neglected.

Some 736 million people currently live in extreme poverty, which is a root cause of many global problems, from ill health to social unrest to migration. Meanwhile, hunger already devastates the lives of more than 820 million people, not only robbing them of a future but weakening their immunity and health - a more dangerous combination than ever in the present crisis. Food insecurity and poverty are most severe among rural marginalized groups, including women and youth.

It is currently unclear to what extent COVID-19 will take hold among rural populations. However, given that we focus on the poorest of the poor, we fear that the impact of COVID-19 on our beneficiary groups is likely to be especially pronounced.
Short-term crises can feed off long-term problems, gaps, underinvestment and vulnerabilities.
The spread of illness can devastate poor rural communities and small-scale food producers who already face challenges such as weak resilience, poor nutrition and limited access to resources and services. Many countries depend on these communities for their national food security. Nevertheless, the pandemic and related disruptions of trade, travel and markets could reduce food production and availability.

Although it is still too early to discern the full effects of the outbreak, we are already receiving reports of supply chain interruptions affecting agricultural production in some of our beneficiary countries. More broadly, the crisis is expected to have profound effects on the global economy, which will certainly affect small-scale rural producers on a much broader scale.
Mitigating the effects of the outbreak involves delivering support directly to the populations who need it most.
Around 63 per cent of the world's poorest people work in agriculture, the overwhelming majority on small farms. Most of the poorest, hungriest and most marginalized people live in rural areas, and that is where the development community now needs to focus its mid- to long-term efforts.
Key messages

COVID-19 is a global pandemic that is already having tangible effects on the agriculture sector.

In addition to its potential health effects, COVID-19 threatens to profoundly affect the livelihoods of poor rural farmers who depend on agriculture.

Given that we focus on the poorest of the poor, we fear that the impact of COVID-19 on our beneficiary groups is likely to be especially pronounced.

Investments in rural agricultural programmes can help people become more self-reliant, mitigate the impact of severe events, increase rural prosperity, ensure more sustainable food systems and food security, and create greater resilience in fragile states.

Economic growth in agriculture is two to three times more effective at reducing poverty and food insecurity than growth in other sectors. Investments in small-scale agriculture can help revive food production and create jobs following a crisis and enable rural communities to recover.

For the latest information on novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), please refer to the World Health Organization.

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COVID-19 is the infectious disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, the most recently discovered coronavirus. The outbreak that began in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, has rapidly spread across the world, profoundly disrupting fundamental activities we all depend on, including agriculture and food systems - and endangering all those who depend on it as their livelihood.

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Resources from UNSCN

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The COVID-19 pandemic is disrupting people's food environments: a resource list on Food Systems and Nutrition responses

The current global outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19) has disrupted food systems around the world. Food environments are where people meet the food system. Around the world people's food environments are rapidly changing in both their external dimensions - food availability, prices, vendors- as well as personal dimensions - geographical access, affordability, convenience and desirability. These rapid food environment changes are influencing the consumers' dietary practices and can lead to a deterioration in both individual, and country level,nutritional and health status.

People, and their health and nutrition status, are what counts. Sustainable healthy diets that contain sufficient fruits and vegetables are crucial in protecting people's immunity. Particularly for those at risk of, or suffering from food insecurity and those with pre-existing non-communicable diseases who are at a heightened risk of becoming severely ill with the virus.

The work of UN agencies and partner organizations to promote nutrition and healthy food systems during the pandemic is continually expanding and strengthening. Contributing to the coronavirus pandemic response, the UNSCN has compiled a list of available resources and key readings with a focus on nutrition and food systems. This list will be continually updated and expanded as more resources become available.
Click to download a PDF version of this list.
Take our short questionnaire on the impacts of COVID-19 on our everyday life. It will only take 5 minutes of your time and it is available in several languages! It is open until Friday May 1 2020.
UN AGENCIES GENERAL RESPONSE

UN: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) (Continually updated);
UNSG Report Shared repsonsability, global solidarity: responding to the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 (March 2020)

OCHA: Global humanitarian response plan COVID-19 (25 March)
Prepared by members of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), including UN, other international organizations and NGOs with a humanitarian mandate, to analyse and respond to the direct public health and indirect immediate humanitarian consequences of the pandemic, particularly on people in countries already facing other crises.

UNDP: COVID-19 pandemic
Drawing on the experience with other outbreaks such as Ebola, HIV, SARS, TB and malaria, as well as their long history of working with the private and public sector, UNDP will help countries to urgently and effectively respond to COVID-19 as part of its mission to eradicate poverty, reduce inequalities and build resilience to crises and shocks.

UNOPS: Dedicated COVID-19 page (Continually updated)

FOOD SYSTEMS PREGNANCY, BREASTFEEDING, INFANT/YOUNG CHILD FEEDING SCHOOL AGED CHILDREN

The Global Child Nutrition Foundation
- The GCNF website provides up to date insights into the country level impacts and mitigation efforts to protect school aged children from malnutrition related to the COVID-19 outbreak.
ADULTS EMERGENCY NUTRITION RESPONSE

UNICEF NutritionI COVID-19: a knowledge dissemination tool to share programmatic guidance, position papers, technical notes, and emerging research and evidence being developed by UNICEF and its partners
Articles and blog posts providing insights into nutrition and food systems in the response to COVID-19 Relevant Networks, Knowledge Hubs and CoPs

Scaling up Nutrition (SUN)- COVID-19 and Nutrition: a knowledge hub for members of the SUN Movement that shares articles and updates which shed light on important links between COVID-19 and nutrition, hunger, health and food systems.

SDG2 Advocacy Hub- SDG2 & COVID-19 Reading List: The SDG2 Advocacy Hub brings together NGOs, advocacy groups, civil society, the private sector and UN agencies to share expertise, ideas, and to collaborate on campaigns to achieve SDG2. The Secretariat has pulled together a number of thought pieces highlighting the impact of COVID-19 on food, food systems and more.

Nutrition Connect: this initiative mobilises knowledge, share experiences, and stimulate dialogue on public private engagements (PPE) for nutrition. A special section on COVID-19 has been created to bring together news and resources related to the risks, responses and impact of COVID-19 on food systems and nutrition.

Agriculture-Nutrition COP (Ag2Nut): Join the community to connect with a global network of professionals whose work focuses on the intersection of agriculture and nutrition. Webinars discussions about COVID-19, food systems, and interaction with malnutrition are planned for early April.

Food for the Cities : Join the community to get in touch with a large group of practitioners, researchers, professors, urban and rural community leaders, technicians and professionals in diverse agency settings sharing ways in which communities, cities and national governments are organizing to address enormous economic and social transformations (in the food system) as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Agriculture, Nutrition and Health (ANH) Academy: this is a global research network in agriculture and food systems for improved nutrition and health to serve as a platform for learning and sharing. They offer an open-access map of experiences, perspectives, opportunities and questions from researchers around the world about the impact of COVID-19 and other health emergencies on food systems, agriculture and nutrition.

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is curating a special series of blogposts analyzing the impacts of COVID-19 on national and global food and nutrition security, poverty and development.

SFS Programme statement on the COVID-19 (coronavirus) crisis and food systems. Read about key considerations for our food systems during this unprecedented crisis.

International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD): a commentary that takes stock of emergency measures taken to curb the spread of COVID-19 and provides governments with options for avoiding a surge of investor-state claims challenging those measures.

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The COVID-19 pandemic is disrupting people's food environments: a resource list on Food Systems and Nutrition responses - UNSCN

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The current global outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19) has disrupted food systems around the world. Food environments are where people meet the food system. Around the world people's food environments are rapidly changing in both their external dimensions - food availability, prices, vendors- as well as personal dimensions - geographical access, affordability, convenience and desirability.

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Piece from UNSCN

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Food Environments in the COVID-19 Pandemic
Impacts and positive policy actions to deliver sustainable healthy diets for all Last updated by the UNSCN Secretariat on 30th March Food environments are rapidly changing
The current global pandemic of Coronavirus (COVID-19), and measures taken to reduce its spread, have disrupted food environments around the world. Never has a larger spotlight been placed on the ways people meet the food systems for getting the nutrition they, and their family need. Disarrangements in day-to-day food supply mechanisms and disturbances in various components of food systems are increasingly felt on an individual level.

These disruptions to people's food environments and restrictions to their personal freedom give even more reason to ensure that human rights are not being compromised in the long term. Everyone has the right to adequate food and the right to health. Realizing and protecting the human rights of every man, woman and child is essential at all times, including during times of crises.

As the pandemic spreads the interaction between people and the food system is changing at an unimaginable speed and taking on greater importance in everyday life. With strict rules placed on people's personal movement to limit the spread of COVID-19, shopping for food is one of the only points of contact with what people knew as normal life. Even so, supermarkets, grocers and markets have become a confronting barometer of the scale of the pandemic. Social distancing measures are implemented, marketplaces are shut down, vendors are banned from selling, limits are imposed on the number of shoppers, long queues are encountered at points of food purchase and empty shelves serve as a sign of the coping mechanism many are adopting.

Unhealthy diets are the leading cause of ill-health. Without dedicated action on nutrition, all forms of malnutrition are likely to increase as a result of the pandemic's impact on food environments. Financial hardships, reduced physical activity, and altered purchasing patterns favoring products with longer shelf life and often poorer nutrition profiles can lead to higher levels of food insecurity, undernutrition, and overweight/ obesity.

Food environment disruptions are the result of many more changes than those observed at the point of sale. Both external and personal dimensions impact on people's food environments. External dimensions include food availability, prices, vendors- while personal dimensions include geographical access, affordability, convenience and desirability. desirability.

Specific examples of positive policy actions to mitigate changes and improve food environments

Many governments at all levels, as well as civil society organizations and the private sector, are already applying positive policy actions to protect food environments. The objective is to try and adapt to unavoidable changes and support sustainable healthy diets for all.

Some examples of actions taken are detailed below:
External Food Environment Domains

Promote the smooth and secure flow of food trade in support of food security and nutrition;

Support and protect smallholder farmers and their value chains/ market access;

Utilize Food Based Dietary Guideline's (FBDG) which include sustainability criteria to inform positive action by all stakeholders throughout the food system- from guiding agricultural and food production strategies, to informing policy makers priorities and promoting sustainable healthy diets to

Support local food systems, through linking them with major food supply chains;

Monitor food prices, food security and malnutrition indicators;

Adopt subsidies and taxes which promote the purchasing and consumption of nutritious foods based on food based dietary guidelines (FBDG);

Strengthen and adapt social protection programmes in light of price fluctuations, income losses and nutritional needs to protect the right to food for all, leaving no one behind;

Include food system and food supply chain actors as essential services to ensure availability, while protecting workers with sanitary measures;

Upkeep of food fortification programmes;

Support major food providers to undertake needs-based purchasing that ensures the availability of basic food items, including fresh fruits and vegetables.

Personal Food Environment Domains

Adapt the delivery of social protection programmes to improve accessibility and affordability in a manner that complies with movement and crowd restrictions, harnesses volunteers and creates employment opportunities;

Explore food rationing systems based on health, nutrition, equity and decency that protects the right to food for all

Use FBDG's as a guide to the promotion of sustainable healthy diets and to guide policy actions throughout the food system

Strengthen nutrition education and messaging to protect breastfeeding and promote nutritious food products, dispel myths, encourage healthy cooking techniques and place emphasis on food safety and waste reduction in line with the latest nutritional advice;

Invest in, scale-up and explore digital and other innovative and solidary approaches for food provision and grocery shopping platforms to enhance convenience; reach vulnerable populations; and improve wholesale markets, smallholder farmers and local producers' access to larger points of sale and consumers;

Support local government level action to strengthen food supply and food environments - including those that look to improve accessibility through home delivery of food for vulnerable populations and create employment opportunities.

Policy actions during the COVID-19 should be human rights based - aiming to protect every person's right to food, reducing inequalities and ensuring even the most vulnerable groups needs are met, leaving no one behind.
Nutritional advice during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Nutritional advice does not change because of the pandemic, but it does take on added urgency:

Consult trustworthy information sources such as UN agencies and government health/ nutrition platform.

Faced with fear and uncertainty it is natural to be tempted by tales of miracle foods. No food, drink or dietary pattern can provide protection from, or cure infection by COVID-19. A healthy dietary pattern based on national or regional FBDG which is diverse and abundant with fruits and vegetables, wholegrains, nuts, and seeds; modest amounts of animal source foods; minimal in amounts of processed meats, and minimal in amounts of foods and beverages high in energy and added amounts of sugar, saturated fat, trans fat, and salt, is important to keep immune systems working at their best.

Unhealthy diets and malnutrition is the leading cause of ill health. It is now more important than ever to consume sustainable healthy diets to ensure all bodily functions work well, including immunity.

Unhealthy diets, leading to overweight and obesity, are the leading cause of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) including diabetes, heart disease, cancer and chronic respiratory disease. Unhealthy diets are also a primary cause of poor control of NCDs and resulting adverse health outcomes. People with NCDs are at a heightened risk of becoming severely ill with COVID-19.

Food safety is crucial to limit both the spread of COVID-19 and exposure to other illnesses. Practice handwashing with soap before and after grocery shopping, handling, preparing and consuming food.

Support local food producers and vendors.

Minimize food waste.

Practice solidarity. Avoid panic purchasing and where possible and safe, help the vulnerable with their food purchases and other needs.

Working towards a healthier, more nutritious future
The current COVID-19 generated food environment disruption poses a huge global challenge, but also an opportunity. Mitigating its consequences with collaborative solutions, solidarity and reinforcement of local food systems, may open up and lead the way towards a sustainable transformation to resilient and sustainable food systems with healthy nutrition at their core. FBDG form a useful tool to guide this transformation. People are searching for direction and reassurances in their food environments that realize the right to food for every man, woman and child. Now is the time to demonstrate the need for, and the power and possibility of sustainable healthy diets.
Overall actions and recommendations by the UN to protect health and nutrition
UN agencies and their partner organizations are continuously scaling up action and information to protect people's health and nutrition in this time of crisis (see a full list of resources here).

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Food Environments in the COVID-19 Pandemic - UNSCN

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Impacts and positive policy actions to deliver sustainable healthy diets for all Last updated by the UNSCN Secretariat on 30th March Food environments are rapidly changing The current global pandemic of Coronavirus (COVID-19), and measures taken to reduce its spread, have disrupted food environments around the world.

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Resources from SDG2 Advocacy Hub

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Send additional thought-pieces linking COVID-19 and SDG2 for inclusion.

With 196 countries affected, the coronavirus pandemic is on track to reshape the economy and society on a global scale. Health systems are naturally the focus of COVID-19 conversations as the first line of defence in tackling this pandemic and rightly so. However, we must also recognise the role of food and food systems - not only as vital systems facing serious challenges at the moment but also as a determining factor in how well we recover.

As such, we've pulled together a number of thought pieces highlighting the impact of COVID-19 on food, food systems and more.

By Kirk Maltais and Joe Wallace (30 March)

"Countries that rely on imported grains to feed their populations have ramped up purchases to ensure they have sufficient stockpiles to see out the pandemic," note authors. Prices of wheat and rice are sharply rising due to a short-term dislocations and countries are starting to restrict agricultural imports - what they refer to as a "perfect storm".

By FAO

By analysing past experiences of disrupted food and agriculture systems, this new FAO resource provides a compilation of policy responses to help keep supply chains alive and guide our food policy response to COVID-19.

By UNSCN

"As the pandemic spreads the interaction between people and the food system is changing at an unimaginable speed and taking on greater importance in everyday life." This article by USCN outlines how food environments are being disrupted by COVID-19 and identifies examples of positive policy actions to protect food environments.

By David Pilling (29 March)

"Africa has reached a 'break the glass moment', an emergency in which international actors need to take drastic action if the world's poorest continent is to avoid a human and economic catastrophe." This FT article outlines the challenge of tackling coronavirus in African countries, its implications for the continent's economy and weak health systems, and identifies actions for national and international actors.

"African countries need support in preparing for the health crisis and for the economic fallout. The measures taken in Asia, Europe and North America will be a particular challenge for countries with limited internet connectivity, dense populations, unequal access to water and limited social safety nets." Ahead of G20's emergency meeting, African Finance Ministers and UN Economic Commission for Africa identify three ways G20 can support Africa.

"In this wonderfully diverse region, each area has its distinct challenges. The common thread is that people are vulnerable and there's always an emergency ahead. First it was prolonged drought, followed by floods. Then locusts descended, threatening food supplies. Now, we're facing a pandemic," says Hijar. As more cases of domestic transition arise, aid worker Hijar in eastern Africa contemplates what the coronavirus pandemic will do to an already fragile population.
COVID-19 and food supply: a four-pronged battle plan for countries
"As countries wage war on COVID-19, they should have a battle plan to lessen shocks to food supply chains - to protect most vulnerable and the rest of the population. Supply chains must be kept alive," warns Maximo. Drawing on global examples, this article outlines how countries can achieve this.

"How will the crisis shape the food system if we do nothing? And what can we do to get the food system in better shape to improve the consumption of nutritious foods for all?" Authors outline the effects of COVID-19 on our food system and access to nutritious food, ways to mitigate these impacts and opportunities presented by the pandemic to get food (systems) back on track. This information is nicely summarised in this table.

(23 March)

More than 320 million children around the world are now missing out on school meals due to school closures because of COVID-19. This news release outlines how WFP is working with governments and partners to ensure school children and their families receive continued food and nutrition support.

Will COVID-19 have negative impacts on global food security? Whose food security and livelihoods are at risk due to the pandemic? FAO's Q&A outlines what we know of the impact of COVID-19 on food and agriculture.
Impact of COVID-19 on Food Security and Nutrition
A narrative series by David Nabarro, Special Envoy on COVID-19, provides strategic advice and high-level political advocacy on the coronavirus, touching on learns for global leadership, impact on business, the need for coordinated action and much more.

By the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (19 March)

"The public health impacts of COVID-19 are broader than the disease itself because of its impacts on food security and nutrition" finds HLPE. This draft issue paper outlines the short and long-term impacts of the pandemic on nutrition and food security in terms of both supply and demand. It also outlines key messages and recommendations for governments.

"COVID-19 poses considerable risks to already vulnerable populations living in countries with severe development deficits, limited government capacity and poor healthcare infrastructure. While the coronavirus has been slow to reach Sub-Saharan Africa, most experts agree that its impact there is imminent," says Chase. Find here five concerns as the coronavirus spreads and how WFP is responding.

"Abundance - and convenience - comes a hidden cost that COVID-19 has exposed: a loss of resilience. Our global food system depends on the tendrils of international trade to wrap the world in an ever more complex system of buyers, sellers, processors and retailers, all of whom are motivated to keep costs low and operations lean," says Evan. In the face of COVID-19 and climate change, this article highlights the need to value resilience alongside efficiency in our food systems.

By Matteo Marchisio (13 March)

"Considering that the ag sector contributes to 7% of China's GDP, the impact of COVID-19 on China's economy would equally affect the agricultural and food security sector. We can anticipate an immediate impact and a longer-term impact - which could potentially have global consequences," says Matteo. Based on personal observations, IFAD staff member based in China shares his reflections on the impact of COVID-19 on achieving SDG2.

"With the pandemic potentially triggering a global economic slowdown, leaders are already looking for ways to shore up their countries' economies. Approaches to stimulate growth will have long-lasting effects. What governments should avoid is trying to boost their economies in the wake of one global health crisis by exacerbating another - namely air pollution," says Helen. This article tracks the path from low-carbon, climate-resilient growth to lasting economic and social benefits.

By Shenggen Fan (6 March)

"COVID-19 is a health crisis. But is could also lead to a food security crisis if proper measures are not taken," warns Shenggen. In light of existing global food security challenges, this IFPRI article highlights lessons learned from previous epidemics and identifies actions to prevent a food security crisis.

By Erin Briehl (27 Feb)

"How well China - and any country - will be able to provide safe, accessible, and available food both during and in the aftermath of COVID-19 will depend on its resilience," reflects Erin. This article explores how the pandemic has affected food access, affordability and availability in China and the government's response to tease out what can be learnt from this crisis.

Looking for a longer read? Here's a few timely books:

Written or read a good article linking COVID-19 and SDG2? Share it!

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Send additional thought-pieces linking COVID-19 and SDG2 for inclusion. With 196 countries affected, the coronavirus pandemic is on track to reshape the economy and society on a global scale. Health systems are naturally the focus of COVID-19 conversations as the first line of defence in tackling this pandemic and rightly so.

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Webinar from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs with Sanjeev Krishnan (S2G Ventures), Sara Menker (Gro Intelligence) and Laura Reiley (The Washington Post)

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COVID-19 has had large scale impacts on the global food system, affecting everything from supply chains and markets to agriculture production and the labor force. Sara Menker of Gro Intelligence and Sanjeev Krishnan of S2G Ventures join Laura Reiley of The Washington Post to examine the current situation. In the face of system shocks, how are companies responding to the rising consumer demand and what are the lasting impacts?

This event is part of the Global Food Security Symposium .

Issues: 2020 US Presidential Election, Global Food & Agriculture.

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LIVE STREAM: Global Food Security Challenges in the Era of COVID-19

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COVID-19 has had large scale impacts on the global food system, affecting everything from supply chains and markets to agriculture production and the labor force. Sara Menker of Gro Intelligence and Sanjeev Krishnan of S2G Ventures join Laura Reiley of The Washington Post to examine the current situation.

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Piece in AgriLinks by Billy Hall, James Oehmke and Shawn Wozniak from USAID Bureau for Resilience and Food Security (RFS)

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This blog was co-authored by Billy Hall, Policy and Communications Advisor, USAID Bureau for Resilience and Food Security (RFS); James F. Oehmke, Senior Policy Advisor, USAID RFS, and Adjunct Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, Northwestern University; and Shawn Wozniak, Agricultural Development Officer, USAID RFS.
The COVID-19 virus, commonly referred to as coronavirus, is spurring dramatic changes to economic, healthcare, transportation, and education systems around the world. No less important is the potential for COVID-19 to impact local and global food systems and their ability to provide safe, affordable, and nutritious food as well as sufficient incomes for people working in food and agriculture sectors. As the COVID-19 pandemic is still evolving, it is difficult to know the geographic reach and degree of impact we can expect to see across food production and distribution systems. Looking to past viruses as well as China's handling of COVID-19, however, might help guide future responses in public policy and programming.

Although Ebola virus is a vastly different disease than COVID-19 - on the genetic level they work through different processes, they have different transmission pathways, there are differences in susceptibility, the disease progresses differently, and they have different levels of severity - it is perhaps useful to reflect upon the food system disruptions that occurred during the 2013-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, primarily in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. Research studying Ebola virus disease's (EVD) effect in Liberia found a reduction in incomes for households across the board, not just in the communities where EVD was present, leading them to suggest that the impact of the outbreak had both direct and indirect income effects. They also "found that the community-level incidence of EVD negatively affected crop production of farm households, which may have exacerbated the problem of food insecurity throughout the country."

In Sierra Leone, the EVD outbreak and the responses to it led to disruptions across the food chain that had "system-wide impacts" on food security and nutrition, on a scale similar to the fallout from disasters like earthquakes. As government policies restricted people's movements through road blockages and community quarantines, markets became disrupted, leading to less available food, less diversity of options, and higher prices, especially on more scarce foods.

The Kivu EVD outbreak of 2018-2020 in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo disrupted food production and supplies in an otherwise humanitarian assistance-dependent context. EVD, compounded by violence in the area, led to enormous outlays of humanitarian food assistance. The long-term effects of the over 2,264 deaths, the disruption to food production, the damage caused by violence - including forced displacement - and other factors are not yet known, and the Government's policy response not yet unveiled.

What then can we learn from EVD as we try to contain COVID-19 and limit negative second-order impacts? How much of these past EVD outbreaks are translatable to the present circumstances? In China, we are already seeing an increase of food prices more than twenty percent above last year's prices, the highest since the 2008 economic crisis. This could be due to a host of coinciding factors, but may well include both hoarding and food chain disruptions. According to IFPRI, one lesson we can take away from China is that food availability in Wuhan, where COVID-19 was first detected, has been somewhat stabilized through "green channels" that send food from outside production hubs, such as Shuoguang located hundreds of miles away. Thus, having a diverse and decentralized food supply landscape linked through secondary cities has proven effective in reducing food insecurity in locked down urban and rural areas.

Despite these observations, there is still much we don't know about the particular disease dynamics of COVID-19 and the possible impacts of different policy decisions. The ways that countries, governments, institutions, and communities respond to coronavirus may have profound implications for resilience, food security, nutrition, and food systems policy more broadly. Without adequate preparation, response plans, and resources, second-order impacts on the economy, security, food security, education, and more will be exacerbated by non-data-driven and possibly uncoordinated policy responses.

It is important to note though that the disruptions associated with the COVID-19 virus and the various responses to this pandemic are far more likely to adversely affect the poor and other marginalized groups with less power and resources to adapt to unpredictable crisis events. Not only will vulnerable populations and communities have greater difficulty accessing enough food for survival and adequate nutrition, but many also depend upon the food system's stability for their livelihoods. Shocks to the food chain may disrupt flows of production and trade, which can have volatile market effects and implications on both food prices and agrifood-based incomes. As we learned from the 2007-2008 food commodity crisis, sharp price increases and market changes disproportionately burden the poor. Certain economic impacts will persist beyond the height of the pandemic. These may include increased disabilities in human/cognitive development due to extended lean season and other caloric shortages particularly among those who are already food insecure, which will lead to next-generation reductions in human capital and ensuing economic impacts. Lastly, food system workers rarely have paid sick days and may be forced to work while ill to ensure they can earn enough money, potentially fueling a spiraling pandemic.

The above considerations make it apparent that sound food security and agricultural policy are vital for countries to be able to weather viral outbreaks and the shocks they send throughout food supply chains. Access to accurate information that helps people plan for and react to changing situations is also necessary for people to make the best decisions given their circumstances. Policymakers must be able to identify the most vulnerable populations and make decisions that aim to reduce harm to them.

As we continue to work hard to ensure that the COVID-19 pandemic does not exacerbate poverty and hunger in our partner countries, we encourage you to contribute to and expand this conversation with your experiences, observations, and ideas.

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Coronavirus and the Implications for Food Systems and Policy

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This blog was co-authored by Billy Hall, Policy and Communications Advisor, USAID Bureau for Resilience and Food Security (RFS); James F. Oehmke, Senior Policy Advisor, USAID RFS, and Adjunct Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, Northwestern University; and Shawn Wozniak, Agricultural Development Officer, USAID RFS.

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Resources from CSIS

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Piece in GAIN by Lawrence Haddad, Jess Fanzo, Steve Godfrey, Corinna Hawkes, Saul Morris and Lynnette Neufeld

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With the spread of COVID-19 we find ourselves plunged into a global health crisis. By most accounts we are only at the early stages of the pandemic so it is going to reshape economy, society and politics, probably permanently.

Pre-COVID-19 crisis, many families the world over already spent a lot of time and energy thinking about getting access to food. During the crisis, the most vulnerable face the rapid loss of their income - spent mainly on food - and this is an immediate threat which should be prioritised. For many others, simple access to shops has also become very worrying and needs swift attention. Even the wealthy are increasingly thinking about food access at this time.

But are governments, businesses and civil society thinking enough about food access and the wider food system?

How will the crisis shape the food system if we do nothing? And what can we do in the context of the crisis to get the food system in better shape to improve the consumption of nutritious foods for all, especially the most vulnerable?

We desperately need to focus on the operation of food systems at the moment because we know that the quality and quantity of the food we eat is the number one risk factor in the prevention of general mortality and morbidity. If we forget the food system right now, the COVID-19 health crisis will unwittingly use the food system as a catapult to have an even bigger impact on the global burden of disease. If we think and act to change the food system right now we can reposition it to be more effective at delivering affordable nutritious food during the crisis, and perhaps even after the crisis.

What are the probable effects of COVID-19 (and the efforts to control it) on the food system which shapes our access to nutritious food?

It is difficult to say for sure, but in the table below we share some thoughts on the potential impacts throughout the food system of COVID-19 (and the response to it), and some ways of mitigating the impacts. We do this for high- and low-income contexts, which may well exist within the same countries. Many of our suggested actions are responses to immediate needs, but many would have positive impacts well after the crisis is under control.

What are the main threats? We are of course worried about food prices, especially for more nutritious foods, which are already more expensive than staples and unaffordable for many people, especially those on low incomes who already spend much of their money on food. More food staples will be consumed as a result of price hikes, but likely also more unhealthy highly processed foods which are cheaper, have longer shelf lives and may provide comfort in tough times. In addition, increased food price volatility (due in part to hoarding and cross border impediments) generates uncertainty and makes it more difficult for food system actors to take all manner of decisions.

We are also deeply worried about negative income shocks on the most vulnerable, through loss of livelihoods as the demand for certain services collapses and certain production systems are disrupted due to affected workers. Farming in particular seems very vulnerable given the older age profile of farmers and the mortality pattern of COVID-19 as well as the sector's common reliance on mobile workforces. This vulnerability, if realised, will mean less food produced and weaker nonfarm rural livelihoods and higher food prices for all, wherever we live. Physical distancing will have an impact on the costs of moving food around, within countries and across borders leading to more food loss and emptier markets. Lapses in food safety, which potentially started all this in a wet food market in Wuhan, will likely exacerbate if no action is taken.

What are the probable effects of COVID-19 (and the efforts to control it) on the food system which shapes our access to nutritious food?

But there are opportunities. Healthier foods build immune systems throughout life but especially among vulnerable ages, including early life and the elderly, and so there is a window of opportunity to make the case for safe nutritious food. Diabetes and other non-communicable diseases are risk factors for COVID19 mortality and additional attention should be given to preventing the former because of the latter.

We expect to see food safety move strongly up the policy priority list because of the origins of COVID-19. Social protection programmes should be more linked to promoting the consumption and production of nutritious food, not just preventing food insecurity. We expect the prevention of food loss, especially fresh food, during storage and transport to gain a greater profile. The aging of farming capacity will be treated more seriously, with efforts increasing to make farming more profitable and appealing to younger generations.

We can see opportunities for reshaping public sector messaging, not only about hygiene but about nutritious food consumption and preparation. Will there be new opportunities to disrupt food transport by using shared economy models capitalising on any underutilised haulage capacity to lower costs? Will we see more financing facilities for investing in nutritious food production, processing, storage, distribution and retailing? Will civil society become more organised and active about the provenance of food and about the behaviour of businesses and governments in ensuring the provision of affordable food?

Finally, will we see greater collaboration between government and the private sector during the crisis spill over into a reshaped narrative post crisis about how the two sectors - public and private - can work better together to improve access for all to safe nutritious foods?

This is the first of a series of blogs that we will put out in the coming months. We have asked Nutrition Connect to set up a COVID-19 and food systems site and we would like to encourage our partners, colleagues, friends and fellow travellers to post blogs, opinion pieces and research reports and papers that are relevant to this topic on the site, with full organisational recognition and lots of cross posting.

The COVID-19 health crisis is here. Let's work together to stop it turning into a food crisis and further exacerbating disease burdens.

Governments, communities and businesses around the world are showing astonishing energy and innovation to cope with COVID-19. The short term priority is to stabilise food systems and keep trade open - all people working in food systems from the farmer to the check out supermarket agent are critical to keep the food system moving. But it is in times of great crisis that fundamental reforms are born. The United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the advance of the welfare state were developed in the darkest days of the Second World War.

So let's stand by our neighbours, critical workers and communities today. Let's also work to reshape our food systems for tomorrow - to deal with the new COVID-19 crisis as well as the much bigger diet-related health crisis; one that has been with us for decades.

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The COVID-19 crisis and food systems: addressing threats, creating opportunities

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With the spread of COVID-19 we find ourselves plunged into a global health crisis. By most accounts we are only at the early stages of the pandemic so it is going to reshape economy, society and politics, probably permanently. Pre-COVID-19 crisis, many families the world over already spent a lot of time and energy thinking about getting access to food.

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Piece by Matteo Marchisio, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

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Last week's OECD Interim Economic Outlook confirmed, as predictable, that the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on China's and the rest of the world's economy is going to be extremely severe.

Restrictions on the movement of people, goods and services, as well as containment measures such as factory closures, have cut manufacturing and domestic demand sharply in China. As a result, OECD lowered its forecast on China's GDP growth for 2020 - from an initial 5.7 per cent growth estimate in November 2019 to a much lower 4.9 per cent in March 2020. Similarly, because of China's weight on the global economy and the rapid expansion of COVID-19 globally, OECD suggested that global GDP growth could drop from an already weak 2.9 per cent in 2019 to an even lower 2.4 per cent in 2020.

While the economic impact of COVID-19 on China's and the world's economy is being carefully monitored and assessed, at the moment little is known about the impact of the outbreak on other "non-economic" sectors such as development.

As an IFAD staff member based in China, I will share some personal reflections on the possible impact of COVID-19 on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly on SDG 2: food security - both in China and globally.

Let me state beforehand that the very limited data currently available make such assessment extremely difficult. My considerations are thus mainly based on my personal observations in China.

Considering that the agricultural sector contributes to about seven per cent of the GDP in China, the impact of COVID-19 on China's overall economy would equally affect the agricultural and food security sector. In this regard, we can anticipate a shorter-term, or immediate, impact, and a longer-term impact - which could potentially have global consequences.
Immediate impact
The restrictions on the movements of people and the factory closures implemented by the Government of China have had an impact on the circulation, and thus availability, of food and agricultural products, and have also interrupted several value chains, with a potential impact on prices.

Counterintuitively, however, what has been observed so far is that, despite the limited circulation of food, the food supply has overall remained stable, and - with limited exceptions - food prices in the country have overall remained stable as well. This can probably be attributed to the large availability of food stocks at the time of the outbreak, when movement restriction measures began to be implemented.

However, the longer the situation persists and the longer the restrictive measures continue, the more stress will be exerted on the whole system. If the circulation of people is not re-established soon, food stocks are destined to decline, and prices to increase.

Obviously, the most impacted would be the poorest and the most vulnerable segments of the population, who have less capacity to deal with the prolonged negative effects of the restrictive preventive measures, especially those affecting labour/wages and production and - ultimately - household income.
Medium- to longer-term impact (and potential global impact)
Beyond the short-term impact of these measures on the food supply, if the situation persists and restrictions on movements continue, there is a risk that agricultural production would be impacted, with consequent longer-lasting and deeper impacts on food availability, prices and - ultimately - overall food security.

March is in fact the beginning of the planting season in many provinces of China. If, because of the movement restrictions, the planting season is missed or delayed, this year's production would likely suffer, internal food demand would likely not be met, and pressure on agricultural imports would increase - with consequences for global food availability and food prices. The risk of ending up facing a situation similar to that of the food crisis in 2008 is, although currently remote, a possibility not to be completely overlooked. State leaders are aware of the potential risk and are prioritizing the early resumption of agricultural production.

Even in the likely case that China will not experience food shortages, global food security could be challenged if, as a consequence of the global spread of COVID-19, other countries begin experiencing stress on their agricultural production capacity and the circulation of food - particularly developing countries.
Possible solutions - and dilemmas
China needs to restart their economy - including the food industry, from production to distribution - as soon as possible. The immediate constraints on the movement of people and goods need to be removed where possible, so that farming can restart and the food supply chains can be re-established without major delays.

The Government of China is encouraging resumption of normal activities, particularly in those areas that were least affected by the outbreak. However, local governments will be facing a dilemma: on the one hand, the need to restart the economy; on the other hand, the risk of a sudden resurgence of a second wave of the epidemic, if the well-implemented preventive measures are relaxed too early.

Second, China needs to put in place a safety net system to reduce the impact of the outbreak on the most vulnerable segments of society. These groups of people may have suffered disproportionately from prolonged reductions in income, increased health costs and limited access to food. Measures may include paying for health care; extending the terms for payment of loans, bills and taxes; providing paid sick leave; and providing other forms of economic support, such as one-time cash transfers.

Obviously, low-income countries would have limited fiscal space to implement safety nets that could reduce the impact of COVID-19 on the most vulnerable, thus increasing their exposure to the impacts of COVID-19 - including the possibility of limited access to a sufficient quantity of affordable food. As a result, the potential impact of COVID-19 on food security in low-income countries could be higher.

Hence, these challenges underscore the importance of investing on the poorest and most vulnerable people, notably the rural poor, strengthening their resilience and enhancing their capacity to cope with shocks, and of supporting developing countries in anticipation of the impacts of COVID-19.

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The potential impact of COVID-19 on SDG 2 (food security) - in China and globally

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Last week's OECD Interim Economic Outlook confirmed, as predictable, that the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on China's and the rest of the world's economy is going to be extremely severe. Restrictions on the movement of people, goods and services, as well as containment measures such as factory closures, have cut manufacturing and domestic demand sharply in China.

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Piece in The Conversation by Evan Fraser, University of Guelph

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Toilet paper shortages, profiteering from hand sanitizer and empty shelves in grocery stores.

Thanks to COVID-19, governments in most industrialized nations are preparing for shortages of life's necessities. If they fail, riots over food may be inevitable. Some wonder if we are responding appropriately to COVID-19, and it's clear that recent events expose a fundamental flaw in the global systems that bring us our daily bread.

We live in a wondrous age when global supply chains seamlessly link farmers and consumers using the principles of " just enough, just in time." For years, companies have worked hard to keep inventories low, timing shipments to balance supply and demand using knife-edge accuracy.

In many ways, this system is a miracle. Low-cost food is one outcome. And if there's a problem in one part of the supply chain, the global system is good at finding alternatives. (Mangoes from Asia gone bad? Try the mangoes from Central America!)

But with this abundance - and convenience - comes a hidden cost that COVID-19 has exposed: a loss of resilience. Our global food system depends on the tendrils of international trade to wrap the world in an ever more complex system of buyers, sellers, processors and retailers, all of whom are motivated to keep costs low and operations lean.

Building resilience

So when the supply chain system itself is thrown into question - as it is now thanks to COVID-19 - then the wheels threaten to come off the proverbial apple cart. COVID-19 shows that we need to wake up and realize that if we really want to be resilient, we need to build in more redundancies, buffers and firewalls into the systems we depend on for life.

In practical terms, this means we should be keeping larger inventories and promoting a greater degree of regional self-sufficiency.

These measures will help ensure that our communities don't panic if the food trucks stop.

(Shutterstock)

But while this may sound sensible, high inventories and more regional self-sufficiency are, in fact, antithetical to the "just enough, just in time" approach that drives most of our economy, even though no one's suggesting we need to be completely self-sufficient of the time.

Take the systems that produce and distribute the corn, wheat and rice that fuel most of humanity's calories. The latest United Nations report on the global grain system contains some bad news. Last year, the world ate more grains than it produced within the year, and our carry-over stocks (defined as the amount of food we have, globally, at the end of the year to see us through to the next harvest) are declining.

The good news is that this decline comes after a run of good years where farmers delivered one monumental harvest after another. So our carry-over stocks started last year in pretty good shape and this means we've currently got about four months of food stored. But there's a downward trend regarding those stockpiles, and this is worrisome.

Climate change poses challenges

But what if Mother Nature doesn't play nice with us this year?

Climate change, after all, is making food harder to produce. What if we face a major drought in Europe and Asia like we did in 2010 to 2011? Or another big Midwestern drought similar to the situation in 2012 and 2013? And what if COVID-19 doesn't go away by summer?

If any of these things happen, we may not have the buffers to protect ourselves. And it won't be toilet paper and hand sanitizer we need to worry about. It might be wheat, rice and corn.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP/Charlie Riedel

Today, conventional wisdom is that the average city in North America has a three-day supply of fresh food (dried, canned and other preserved food supplies will last a bit longer). This, according to some, means that we are all only ever "nine meals from anarchy." Luckily, North American grocery stores have sophisticated supply chains so no one is seriously suggesting that the panicked purchasing of the last few days that has emptied shelves will persist. Nevertheless, the systems we depend upon are, in many ways, fragile and inherently vulnerable.

In all likelihood, COVID-19 will pass and most of us will only suffer economic setbacks from lost wages and disruptions linked with cancelled classes, travel and meetings. But in the aftermath, it's important to ask whether we - as a society - will treat this as a moment to learn a bit about the fragility of the modern world.

Will we work collectively to put resilience alongside efficiency as a primary driver for the systems we depend upon each and every day to feed ourselves?

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Coronavirus: The perils of our 'just enough, just in time' food system

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Toilet paper shortages, profiteering from hand sanitizer and empty shelves in grocery stores. Thanks to COVID-19, governments in most industrialized nations are preparing for shortages of life's necessities. If they fail, riots over food may be inevitable.

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Resources from IFPRI

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IFPRI is curating a series of analyses from IFPRI researchers and guest contributors on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on national and global food and nutrition security, poverty, and development. The webpage will continue to be updated with new analyses in the coming weeks and months.

IFPRI Blogposts

Trade is allowing production to move from areas of surplus to areas of shortage, avoiding the drastic shortages and food insecurity associated with reliance only on local production.

A survey shows lockdowns are having serious impacts on agricultural operations, particularly pig farmers.

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IFPRI Resources and Analyses on COVID-19 (also known as Coronavirus)

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IFPRI is curating a series of analyses from IFPRI researchers and guest contributors on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on national and global food and nutrition security, poverty, and development. The webpage will continue to be updated with new analyses in the coming weeks and months.

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Resources from FAO

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Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

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Some countries (e.g. Indonesia) have already announced that non-essential spending should be at least partially reallocated. In Indonesia, for example social security spending and the health sector expenditures were given priority. In the US, the "family first emergency package" includes food aid. It is inevitable that certain countries will reallocate their budgets as a result of the pandemic and it is possible that this could lead to a decrease in agricultural investments/expenditures. Decentralized spending to agriculture may see significant cuts in areas most affected by COVID-19.

Due to the outbreak, key public agricultural facilities (such as agricultural research agencies & institutes), may have to be partially or permanently closed. The monetary implications could be large and it could delay the diffusion of vital agricultural technology.

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Some countries (e.g. Indonesia) have already announced that non-essential spending should be at least partially reallocated. In Indonesia, for example social security spending and the health sector expenditures were given priority. In the US, the "family first emergency package" includes food aid.

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Piece in Nutrition Connect by Ndidi Nwuneli, Sahel Consulting

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My fears are shared by a few stakeholders on the Continent and around the world. The EU Farmer's organization - COPA-COGECA earlier this week actively advocated for support to ensure minimal disruptions to the food supply chain, worker protection and contingency plans. The United Kingdom and the United States have already outlined comprehensive plans to provide intervention grants, loans, and tax holidays, for stakeholders in the food industry, including restaurant owners and retailers affected by the economic fallout of the pandemic. In Mexico, farmers who continue to plough their fields are being celebrated as heroes.
1) Our governments at the federal, state, and local levels recognize key stakeholders in the food and agricultural landscape as essential workers and provide them with the protection and support that they need to continue to work, following pre-stipulated safety and health protocols.
We must keep food markets and factories open, with clear guidelines around limiting crowds, and widely publicized schedules for who can enter during what periods of time. We can also learn from China's example over the last few months, where government officials, especially the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) and Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and National Health Commission repeatedly issued comprehensive notes to farmers on the control and prevention of the virus in rural areas, as well recommendations and protocols for preparing for their planting season and sustaining the livestock and poultry sectors.

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Ensuring that hunger does not kill more people than COVID-19 in Africa

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With the global spread of the COVID-19, and gradual lock downs in cities and countries across Africa, I have new fears - that starvation and hunger are mounting threats for people across continent.

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Video from FAO

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Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

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Novel coronavirus COVID-19 | Food supply chains under strain, what to do?

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Piece in Nutrition Connect by Maximo Torero, FAO

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Cash handouts for poor farmers are essential, as well as grants to restart production. Banks should wave fees on farmers' loans and extend payment deadlines. A capital injection in the agricultural sector can help small and medium agri-businesses, their salaried staff and temporary workers stay afloat. During emergency, governments can purchase agricultural products from small farmers to establish strategic emergency reserves, especially for non-perishable commodities, to boost food supply.

What China has done is worth noting. During the lockdown, it lessened the virus's impact on smallholder farmers and also kept food shortages to a minimum by adopting the Vegetable Basket project from 1988, which increased urban access to fresh produce by expanding vegetable farms in the suburbs and establishing reserves. Under this scheme, farmers and merchants in nine provinces worked together to supply grains, oil, meat and vegetables to Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak. Some local governments have centralized animal slaughtering and are paying for refrigeration costs, including electricity.

"Heal Italy" serves as a model, too, allocating $106 million to support farming, fisheries and aquaculture enterprises to cover the interests of loans and mortgages.

The past week has seen countries rushing to shut their borders. Slowing the virus is critical, as we must survive the coronavirus pandemic. But we must also understand the enormous damage the current measures will be inflicting on our global food systems. We have to work together to get through this.

Enacting the above domestic measures and actively seeking international cooperation can ready countries for the battle ahead.
This blog was originally published on MaximoTorero.com, and reproduced here with permission from the author.

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COVID-19 and food supply: A four-pronged battle plan for countries

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As countries wage full-on war on the coronavirus, they should also have a battle plan to lessen the shocks to their food supply chains. This is first to protect the most vulnerable people and the rest of the population, too.

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Feed of news from World Food Programme Insight on Medium

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Coronavirus (COVID-19) - World Food Programme Insight

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Stories about the novel Coronavirus pandemic. Insight by The World Food Programme.

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Piece in African Arguments by William Moseley, Macalester College

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How will COVID-19 affect Africa's food systems? - African Arguments

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Food supplies shouldn't be too badly affected, but social restrictions will make it hard for many to buy and access food. As the COVID-19 pandemic takes hold in Africa, many governments have begun to tighten borders, restrict gatherings and close schools.

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Q&A from FAO

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Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

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Both lives and livelihoods are at risk from this pandemic.

The disease is spreading quickly. This is no longer a regional issue-it is a global problem calling for a global response.

We know that it will eventually retreat, but we don't know how fast this will happen. We also know that this shock is somewhat unusual as it affects significant elements of both food supply and demand.

We risk a looming food crisis unless measures are taken fast to protect the most vulnerable, keep global food supply chains alive and mitigate the pandemic's impacts across the food system.

Border closures, quarantines, and market, supply chain and trade disruptions could restrict people's access to sufficient/diverse and nutritious sources of food, especially in countries hit hard by the virus or already affected by high levels of food insecurity.

But there is no need for the world to panic. Globally, there is enough food for everyone. Policy makers around the world need to be careful not to repeat the mistakes made during the 2007-08 food crisis, and turn this health crisis into an entirely avoidable food crisis.

As the virus spreads, cases mount and measures tighten, there are countless ways, however, that the global food system will be tested and strained in the coming weeks and months.

As of now, disruptions are minimal as food supply has been adequate and markets have been stable so far. However, we are already seeing challenges in terms of logistics bottlenecks (not being able to move food from point A to point B), and likely, there is less food of high-value commodities (i.e. fruits and vegetables) being produced.

As of April, May, we expect disruptions in the food supply chains. For example: restrictions of movement, as well as basic aversion behavior by workers, may impede farmers from farming and food processors - who handle the vast majority of agricultural products - from processing. Shortage of fertilizers, veterinary medicines and other input could affect agricultural production. Closures of restaurants and less frequent grocery shopping diminish demand for fresh produce and fisheries products, affecting producers and suppliers. Smallholder farmers are particularly vulnerable.

(More info under Q 3, 4).

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Q&A: COVID-19 pandemic - impact on food and agriculture

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Both lives and livelihoods are at risk from this pandemic. The disease is spreading quickly. This is no longer a regional issue-it is a global problem calling for a global response. We know that it will eventually retreat, but we don't know how fast this will happen.

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Resources from Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN)

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The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic will have lasting effects on people and their nutrition, healthcare, economies and food systems in all corners of the world. This also rings true for the 61 countries and four Indian States that form the SUN Movement. A great deal of thinking is going on as to how to deal with the COVID-19 crisis right now, but also going forward.

This knowledge hub aims to be a resource for all members of the SUN Movement to get informed about COVID-19 developments, at large. It also sheds light on important links between COVID-19 and nutrition, hunger, health and food systems - by bringing together important updates, guidance, articles and opinion pieces, in its initial stage. Nutrition can't wait!

"The health, safety and well-being of all our colleagues and global community is our top responsibility and priority. At the same time, we will continue supporting SUN members and partners everywhere"

* Launch of the COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan - United Nations * WHO Alert system via WhatsApp - World Health Organization * COVID-19 - Situation reports - World Food Programme * Protecting children and families - UNICEF * A battle plan for insuring global food supplies during COVID19 crisis - FAO * The potential impact of COVID19 on SDG 2 - IFAD * Extraordinary G20 Leaders' Summit Statement on COVID19 - G20 * COVID-19 and the risk to food supply chains: How to respond? - FAO

* COVID-19 and nutrition programming Forum - ENN Online * Focus on COVID19 - by Devex * COVID-19 pandemic - impact on food and agriculture - FAO * Still 'early days' to assess COVID-19 impact on women, children - UNICEF * Impacts of COVID19 on food and nutrition security, poverty, and development - IFPRI

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The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic will have lasting effects on people and their nutrition, healthcare, economies and food systems in all corners of the world. This also rings true for the 61 countries and four Indian States that form the SUN Movement.

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Resources from Nutrition Connect

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COVID-19 blog series on Nutrition Connect
COVID-19 and food supply: A four-pronged battle plan for countries
In the first of our series on COVID-19 and food systems, Maximo Torero, the Chief Economist and an Assistant Director General at FAO, discusses the need to keep food supply chains alive in the face of the response to COVID-19. He should know as he was at the helm of IFPRI's Trade and Markets Division during the food price crisis of 2008. He says we need to (1) enhance emergency food assistance and social safety nets, (2) keep global trade alive, (3) keep food supply chains gears moving and (4) support smallholder farmers to increase production. Read on to find out why and how.
Ensuring that hunger does not kill more people than COVID-19 in Africa
Ndidi Nwuneli, Nigerian thought leader, co-founder and managing partner of Sahel Consulting, compels us to realize the potential hunger and malnutrition impacts of COVID-19 on the continent of Africa. There is an increased urgency for the world to prioritize the functioning of food systems during this crisis to ensure nutritious food can be available and accessible for our fellow African citizens. She argues that we must act, and to do so quickly and through a range of stakeholders. She takes us through three key actions for prioritization: (1) provide protection and support for food workers across the value chain; (2) leverage technology, logistical, and retail partners to keep food moving and available; and (3) take a local approach to ensure we help each other in our own communities. There has been so much progress on the continent on tackling hunger and undernutrition. Ndidi calls for us to not lose the momentum.

News, views and reflections
Q&A: COVID-19 pandemic - impact on food and agriculture
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has put together a helpful list of FAQs and responses on COVID-19. Questions include, among others: Will COVID-19 have negative impacts on global food security? Whose food security and livelihoods are most at risk due to the pandemic? What are FAO's recommendations to mitigate the risks of the pandemic on food security and nutrition?
FAO: Analyses and solutions in a period of crises - COVID-19 Pandemic
In order to provide such information to its Members, FAO analysed past experiences and provides a compilation of policy responses with their pros and cons for agricultural and food systems. This list will be continually updated and expanded.
Impact of COVID-19 on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN)
This is a draft issue paper from the High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE). It goes through both the direct and indirect impacts of COVID-19 on food and nutrition security, as well as both supply and demand side considerations. This paper concludes with a list of helpful key messages. A more comprehensive response from HLPE is expected soon.
IFPRI Resources and Analyses on COVID-19
The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has created a dedicated page with resources related to the impact of COVID-19 on food security, nutrition, health and economics. Issue reports cover topics including: How much will global poverty increase because of COVID-19?; COVID-19's impact on China's small and medium-sized businesses; Preventing global food security crisis under COVID-19 emergency. IFPRI also released a Spotlight on the Coronavirus Outbreak.
Webinar: community discussion on COVID-19 and food systems
On 2 April 2020, ANH and Ag2Nut will host a webinar to discuss nutrition and food systems in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
How your diet can help flatten the curve
This article highlights the importance of eating well to stay healthy, with experts giving three food-related opportunities to help slow the spread of COVID-19. They also call for the creation of "a healthier food system through government, business, healthcare and consumer actions" to help address current and future health.
Countries starting to hoard food, threatening global trade
This article in Bloomberg takes a look at nationalistic policies in response to COVID-19, and the negative impact that could have on the international food system and supply chain. Professor Tim Benton, Research Director, Emerging Risks; Director, Energy, Environment and Resources Programme, warns "If governments are not working collectively and cooperatively to ensure there is a global supply, if they're just putting their nations first, you can end up in a situation where things get worse."
Coronavirus measures could cause global food shortage, UN warns
This Guardian article with Maximo Torero, chief economist of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), highlights the importance of keeping food supply chains and trade routes open, especially for fruit and vegetables.
COVID-19 and Food Security
The Global Food Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has pulled together a 'What you need to know' page on their website. While most of the questions, information and advice are focused on the US-context, this information may be helpful to the global community experience similar constraints or impacts.
The COVID-19 Crisis and Food Systems: Addressing threats, creating opportunities
This blog explores whether governments, businesses and civil society are thinking enough about food access and the wider food system in response to COVID-19. The authors ask: How will the crisis shape the food system if we do nothing? And what can we do in the context of the crisis to get the food system in better shape to improve the consumption of nutritious foods for all, especially the most vulnerable? There is also a very helpful table that lays out "COVID-19 Crisis and Food Systems: Probable impacts and potential mitigation and adaptation responses", with actions for different stakeholders at different points in the food system.
The potential impact of COVID-19 on SDG 2 (food security) - in China and globally
This blog from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) takes a look at the short, medium and long term impacts of COVID-19, as well as possible solutions.
How to minimize the impact of Coronavirus on food security
This piece from the World Food Programme looks at the impact of economic insecurity and food insecurity in the wake of COVID-19, with a call to "Avoiding protectionism, monitoring prices and supporting the vulnerable through social safety nets can limit the impact of the outbreak."
UK Coronavirus Emergency Bill looks to 'keep food supply flowing'
This news story from Food Navigator provides reflections on the UK government's COVID-19 response, and how they are working with the food industry to ensure a stable supply of food to the country.
Coronavirus: The perils of our 'just enough, just in time' food system
This article in The Conversation argues that the convenience and complexity of our global food system is also what weakens it. According to the author, "COVID-19 shows that we need to wake up and realize that if we really want to be resilient, we need to build in more redundancies, buffers and firewalls into the systems we depend on for life."
Small farms also struggle as restaurants shut down due to Coronavirus
This piece from Civl Eats looks at how small-scale farmers are adapting in response to COVID19. As suppliers to both public institutions (e.g. schools) as well as private businesses (e.g. restaurants), recent closures mean farmers are looking for new ways to get produce directly to consumers.

Initiatives and responses
WHO launches COVID-19 "Solidarity Response Fund" to mobilise private sector Coronavirus response
According to UN Dispatch, "The World Health Organization is seeking to mobilize $675 million through April to support Covid-19 preparedness and response efforts around the world. So far, governments are the key contributors to this effort. But today, WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, announced a new fundraising platform, the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, to mobilize contributions from philanthropies, corporations and even individuals." Donations can be made via their platform: https://covid19responsefund.org/
UN Secretary-General to launch COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan
On 25 March, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will launch a COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan. The Secretary-General will be joined by the UN's Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore.
COVID Action Platform
As the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation, the World Economic Forum, acting as partner to the World Health Organization, is mobilising all stakeholders to protect lives and livelihoods. This new COVID Action Platform will focus on three priorities: Galvanise the global business community for collective action; Protect people's livelihoods and facilitate business continuity; Mobilise cooperation and business support for the COVID-19 response.
Statement: CGF Response to Covid-19
Statement from the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) on behalf of its members, including highlights of what various collaborations and initiatives are doing to support COVID-10 efforts. Of particular interest may be the specific list of actions groups have taken; this includes efforts related to food supply chains, food safety, as well as hygiene, health and wellness products.
How business is responding to COVID-19
The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBSCD) is pulling together announcements and responses to highlight how its members are taking extra actions in amidst COVID-19.
FNS Actions to Respond to COVID-19
This is a helpful page that outlines the how the US government's Food and Nutrition Service is responding to or adapting its food-related beneficiary programming in response to COVID-19.
How are companies responding to the coronavirus crisis?
While not specifically related to food systems, this article from the World Economic Forum highlights a few examples of how businesses are supporting efforts to address COVID-19. Examples are quite diverse, including donations from pharmaceutical companies, to efforts from web-based technology firms, to perfume factories switching production to produce hand sanitisers, to public private partnerships that are focused on data insights.
Statement by the International Food & Beverage Alliance
IFBA, which is a group of twleve global food and non-alcoholic beverage companies, commits to doing their part ensuring safe and stable supply of food throughout the COVID-19 epidemic, but calls on governments to ensure that the facilities that produce, process, package, deliver and sell food remain open, and that border management does not inhibit the continue movement of food.

Additional resources
Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Covid-19 Nutrition Knowledge hub
This hub "aims to be a resource for all members of the SUN Movement to get informed about COVID-19 developments, at large. It also sheds light on important links between COVID-19 and nutrition, hunger, health and food systems - by bringing together important updates, guidance, articles and opinion pieces, in its initial stage."
World Economic Forum Strategic Intelligence map
As part of its COVID Action Platform, the World Economic Forum has created this great interactive resource that maps out impact and response to COVID-19 across all sectors and stakeholder groups.
Making health and nutrition a priority during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic
Tips from the American Society for Nutrition (ASN) on how to eat well and stay healthy.

The nexus between international trade, food systems, malnutrition and climate change

Though not COVID-19 specific outbreak, this Nature article raises important considerations for global food systems and trade in the face of a global pandemic like COVID-19. The authors examine "how different aspects of trade can constrain or enable governments' ability to implement food system-level actions aimed at enhancing nutrition and mitigating climate change." They focus on three technical strategies to transform food systems: removal of market barriers for agricultural commodities; the protection of regulatory policy space; and the revision of subsidies. They also review evidence around non-technical considerations, including the political economy of trade, interest of different actors, ideas and formal and informal institutional processes at various levels. The authors acknowledge the complexity and interconnectedness of global and regional trade, binding and non-binding agreements, food systems, nutrition and climate change - and the need for updated strategies that align with technological innovation and globalisation. Overall a really helpful snapshot of current systems, and opportunities for better coherence in the future.

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Latest news and views on COVID-19 and food systems

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COVID-19 and food supply: A four-pronged battle plan for countries In the first of our series on COVID-19 and food systems, Maximo Torero, the Chief Economist and an Assistant Director General at FAO, discusses the need to keep food supply chains alive in the face of the response to COVID-19.

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Webinar from the Informed Cities Forum with Carolyn Steel, author of Sitopia

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Even though the Rural-Urban edition of the Informed Cities Forum, scheduled to take place on 2-3 April 2020 in Lucca, Italy, was cancelled, we believe that fruitful discussions are possible, even when we can't meet in person.

We are happy to invite you to join us for an Informed Cities webinar with Carolyn Steel, who was scheduled to give a keynote address in Lucca.

In her (online) keynote talk, "Sitopia: rethinking our lives through food", Carolyn will present her perspective on rural-urban linkages, sustainable food systems, and COVID-19's new and ever evolving contributions to the dialogue. A moderated question and answer session will follow the presentation.

The webinar will take place on 2 April at 13.30 CET. It will be recorded and shared on the Rural-Urban Europe and Informed Cities websites.

To participate in the webinar, please register here.
About the speaker
Carolyn Steel is a leading thinker on food and cities. Her 2008 book, "Hungry City: How Food Shapes Our Lives", received international acclaim, establishing her as an influential voice across a range of fields in academia, industry and the arts. It has been translated into seven languages and has become a key text for architects, planners, green thinkers and food professionals.

A London-based architect, academic and writer, Carolyn has lectured at Cambridge University, London Metropolitan University, Wageningen University and the London School of Economics. She is in international demand as a speaker and her 2009 TED talk has received more than one million views. Her new book, "Sitopia: How Food Can Save the World", was recently published by Chatto & Windus.

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Webinar with Carolyn Steel: "Sitopia: rethinking our lives through food"

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Even though the Rural-Urban edition of the Informed Cities Forum, scheduled to take place on 2-3 April 2020 in Lucca, Italy, was cancelled, we believe that fruitful discussions are possible, even when we can't meet in person.

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Webinar co-hosted by Ag2Nut and the ANH Academy

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Ag2Nut/ANH Academy Webinar: community discussion on COVID-19 and food systems

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Ag2Nut/ANH Academy Webinar: community discussion on COVID-19 and food systems

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Piece in Ideas for India by Sudha Narayanan, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research

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A critical fallout of the lockdown following the novel coronavirus pandemic has been a combination of confusion, uncertainty, and anxiety for farmers and consumers alike as to what lies in store in the coming weeks. In this post, Sudha Narayanan provides a sense of current bottlenecks in the supply chains of food and agricultural produce, and makes recommendations for government action to get these back on track quickly.

A critical fallout of the lockdown following the novel coronavirus pandemic has been a combination of confusion, uncertainty, and anxiety for farmers and consumers alike as to what lies in store in the coming weeks.

There are from several states of closure of APMC (Agricultural Produce Market Committee) mandis, leaving farmers stuck with their harvests.Reports of police extortion of traders transporting produce have surfaced in a few states; in others, truckers have been fined upto Rs.12,000 for plying supposedly in violation of the lockdown.At least one Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO) in Karnataka has been pushed to suspend its activities. States such as have gone further and announced suspension of government procurement operations altogether. Coming at the peak of rabi (winter) harvest,these collectively spell doom not just for the farmers but also informal workers involved in the supply chain of these commodities.

At the distribution end, in big cities, a number of private e-commerce and micro delivery firms have faced disruptions.These range from shipments being stopped at state and city limits to their delivery agents being harassed and roughed up, sometimes by cops, when they attempt deliveries. A few have suspended operations altogether. Such disruptions, perversely,prompt customers to flock brick-and-mortar stores, the very thing the lockdown seeks to prevent.Street vendors too have been forced indoors.Many direct farmer-to-consumer arrangements in urban centres are dysfunctional because of concerns and fears over transportation. There are reports too of consumers being harassed while venturing out to shop for groceries.

By most accounts, it is apparent that the lockdown has taken a wrong turn, notwithstanding the government guidelines that allow for food transport and retailing. In material terms, impediments in the free movement of goods can create uncertainty around food availability, resulting in volatile prices for consumers and farmers, not just in the cities but countrywide.Some farmers are seeing a sharp decline in prices, halved in some cases, because logistical risks deter traders from procuring. Within a couple of days, some farmers found that they had no buyers at all; there are already reports that farmers are delaying harvests. If things get worse, they might leave the standing crop on the fields. In contrast, for consumers in cities, many perishables have seen a surge in prices.Supply chain bottlenecks could result in substantial loss of produce, especially of perishables.

The ramifications of current bottlenecks, many expect, will be apparent only in two or three weeks; if left unaddressed, in the worst-case scenario it might well coincide with when the pandemic is far more widespread than it is currently. Time is therefore of the essence here.

What is the way forward?

Currently, on-farm operations such as harvesting appear unaffected, even in places that rely on migrant labour. The immediate and urgent focus of the government should therefore be on post-harvest activities, wholesale and retail marketing, storage and transport.

The Centre along with the states should agree to allow all shutting of APMC with trading on specific days of the week, allowing for days off to sanitize the mandis and all forms of agricultural markets, regulated and unregulated,public or private, where relevant,to function as usual. States such as Maharashtra, after mandis have already announced that they will be reopened mandi. This is a step in the right direction.

All farmers' markets, direct farmer-to-consumer arrangements such as Community Supported Agriculture and other FPOand cooperative marketing activities should be allowed unhindered. The Rythu Bazaars in Telangana, for example, have often come under siege from panicking consumers, first during the onion price crisis and more hazardously, in the past few days. All food retailers should be permitted to operate round the clock if they desire, to help reduce potential congestion.

Currently, there is little clarity on the policy for movement of commodities. This might in part stem from the guidelines that talk about commodities as essential or not, which is confusing to say the least.However, it is also crucial that even non-food crops be permitted free movement and sale to protect the interests of farmers. Tamil Nadu's guidelines, for example, explicitly allows for all goods carriers to operate(dated 23 March G.O.(Ms).No.152). With laudable foresight, Telangana has gone a step further to ensure, via a separate order, that seed production, testing, storage, and transport remain unhindered, in preparation for the kharif season (Memo No.49 on 23 March 2020), when planting materials will be in demand. This constraint to movement is systemic and widespread and cannot be solved by issuing passes to select operators, for example, e-commerce players. The Centre and states should instead agree to allow free movement of all agricultural commodities (food, non-food crops, and inputs) both within and across states.

Many of the logistical disruptions have come from an "overzealous bureaucracy" and police overreach in enforcing the lockdown. Some traders complain that consequently even finding workers has gotten harder.Clear advisories need to go out urgently to the police that they are tasked with facilitating, rather than preventing the movement of agricultural commodities.

At a time like this, government procurement under price support operations is crucial. Telangana, for example, has explicitly issued guidelines for decentralised procurement of paddy with staggered times for different farmers to reduce crowds in village procurement centres (GO Ms No.42, 22 March 2020). Many states, such as Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh, already have the capacity to decentralise procurement at the village level. States can do this via Self-Help Groups, Primary Agricultural Credit Cooperative Societies, and even via functioning FPOs. The government could explore leasing in unutilised capacity in warehouses and cold storages to extend support to farmers/FPOs who want to hold produce, linking them to warehouse receipts or pledge loans where there is demand. In some ways, such interventions go beyond cash transfers, by ensuring that harvested produce is not wasted while stabilising supplies and prices. Indeed, given that many state governments have already announced distribution of meals, procurement can also serve to support these efforts.

Naturally, some protocols need to be issued for sanitising storage, procurement, and marketing spaces, including social distancing strategies and protective measures for those who work in these spaces. At this time, those associated with supply chains need to feel secure that they are protected -from the epidemic itself but also from the lockdown. It is not difficult for the government to get food and agricultural supply chains back on track.The costs of not doing so could well be alarming.
Note from author: Many instances cited here are based on personal communication with those on the ground, including farmers, promoters of FPOs, and logistics operators. They remain anonymous for ethical reasons.

The use of the word "essential" comes from the Essential Commodities Act, which notifies some commodities as essential. There is no good reason to expect people (including) the police to know what these are.

Most states have used Section 2 the Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897 (Central Act No.3 of 1897), often enabled by the National Disaster Management Act (2005) to declare lockdowns; the actual notifications differ significantly across states.

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Food and agriculture during a pandemic: Managing the consequences

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A critical fallout of the lockdown following the novel coronavirus pandemic has been a combination of confusion, uncertainty, and anxiety for farmers and consumers alike as to what lies in store in the coming weeks.