Extension and advisory services: at the frontline of the response to COVID-19 to ensure food security

Between present disruptions and future threats to the food supply chain, the COVID-19 outbreak has generated extreme vulnerability in the agriculture sector. It is therefore crucial to mobilize all available instruments, institutions and stakeholders from both public and private sectors and civil society to ensure appropriate and timely response.

Agricultural Extension and Advisory Service (EAS) systems play an indispensable role at the frontline of the response to the pandemic in rural areas. However, in order to adapt to the emergency context within the government regulations, EAS providers need to rapidly change their way of operating.

Contact Person: Selvaraju Ramasamy, Head, Research and Extension Unit, FAO

Mitigating the impacts of COVID-19 on the livestock sector

The COVID-19 pandemic represents an unprecedented emergency and grave societal threat. It is affecting key sectors that contribute to global food security, nutrition and livelihoods, including the livestock sector. This policy brief describes the observed and potential impacts of COVID-19 on the livestock sector, based on evidence from the ongoing crisis and past epidemics. It highlights key impacts on animal production, processing, transport, sales and consumption as well as on the poorest and most vulnerable. Finally, the brief provides examples of country responses as well as policy options for consideration by national policy makers to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the sector.

Contact Person: Badi Besbes, Senior Animal Production Officer, Animal Production and Health Division, FAO

COVID-19 global economic recession: Avoiding hunger must be at the centre of the economic stimulus

The scenario presented in this brief predicts that if the anticipated global recession, due to the effects of COVID-19, were to trigger a reduction in the growth rate of gross domestic product (GDP) of between two and ten percentage points in all countries in 2020, then the number of undernourished people in net food-importing countries would increase by 14.4 million to 80.3 million, with the majority of the increase coming from low-income countries.

Economic stimulus in all countries must be focused on keeping the food supply chains functioning, while also protecting access to locally-, regionally- and globally-produced food. Stimulus measures that tackle the current menace to food access should emphasize efforts to build resilience into food systems to safeguard them against future economic slowdowns and downturns.

Contact Person: Marco Sanchez, Deputy Director, Agricultural Development Economics Division, FAO

Sustainable crop production and COVID-19

Even before the pandemic struck, the ambitious path that was laid out by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was going to require a concerted effort to stay on track; COVID-19 has fundamentally changed the context in which Agenda 2030 was being pursued and we now risk a reversal of gains made in the last few years. The poorest and most vulnerable groups will experience the most negative effects of the current pandemic. This demographic includes subsistence farmers as well as smallholder farmers’ enterprises. This policy brief is intended for decision-makers in developing Member Countries where food security and nutrition are underpinned by the outputs of hundreds of millions of smallholder farmers. It provides guidance on actionable measures for mitigating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on crop production to support sustainable food systems, and ultimately enhancing the resilience of institutions and infrastructure to ensure delivery of safe and nutritious food.

Contact Person: Remi NonoWomdim, Deputy Director, Plant Production and Protection Division, FAO

COVID-19 and rural poverty

While the immediate impact of COVID19 in most parts of the world has been primarily urban, the economic impact of COVID19 spread quickly to rural areas. In most cases, the contagion will eventually follow. Most of the world’s poor and food insecure live in rural areas, and although physical distance, relative isolation, lower population density and their own production of food play in favour for rural areas, they are particularly vulnerable to suffering severe impact from the pandemic and the ensuing economic contraction. Rural areas, particularly in the developing world, are much less prepared to deal with the direct and indirect impact of the crisis.

This brief presents a series of general and policy recommendations to ensure that the needs and interests of the rural poor are addressed in COVID-19 planning, response and recovery measures around the world in order to mitigate the impact of the pandemic in rural areas as much as possible.

Contact Person: Benjamin Davis, Strategic Programme Leader , Strategic Programme to reduce rural poverty (SP3), FAO