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The global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is expanding daily. Governments around the globe are confronted with multiple challenges related to minimizing the devastating health impact and protecting human lives, and ensuring sufficient food supplies and the functioning of services to those most in need. All this while coping with the economic consequences of COVID-19, which is expected to push an additional 548 million people below the poverty line. 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, [...]

Many communities and vulnerable individuals rely on foodbanks and other food recovery and redistribution charities to ensure they have access to enough food to build resilience in their communities, reduce food insecurity and contribute to healthier diets. Quite often foodbanks are able to distribute processed foods with limited access to highly perishable fresh foods, resulting in nutrient deficiencies of beneficiaries who are dependent on these charitable organizations for their food needs. Throughout the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it is recommended that food banks, seek to source and offer, as far as possible, fresh fruits and vegetables and limit the quantities of calorie dense [...]

The full range of activities required to deliver fish and fish products from production to the final consumer is subject to indirect impacts of the pandemic through new sanitary measures, changing consumer demands, market access or logistical problems related to transportation and border restrictions. This in turn has a damaging effect on fishers and fish farmers’ livelihoods, as well as on food security and nutrition for populations that rely heavily on fish for animal protein and essential micronutrients. This policy brief reviews on going challenges and proposes measures to protect production and income of the sector and the most vulnerable, as [...]

Smallholder producers’ access to markets is also affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Immediate impacts tend to be more severe for high-value commodities (perishable products), which are often produced by smallholder farmers. Several countries are putting in place a variety of measures to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on smallholder producers. This brief builds on lessons learned in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone during the 2014 Ebola virus disease (EVD) epidemic and during the 2007–2008 global food prices volatility crisis.

Specific information about the virus responsible for COVID-19 is and remains scant; however, the behaviour and characteristics of the virus can be predicted based on data from similar viruses such as those responsible for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). Despite the hypothesis that the virus may have originated in bats and infected another animal used for food, there is no evidence of continued transmission of the virus from animals to humans through the food chain. The application of sound principles of environmental sanitation, personal hygiene and established food safety practices will reduce the likelihood [...]

An increasing number of countries introduce measures that reduce population and labor mobility in view of the Covid-19 outbreak. It is straightforward that agricultural tasks maybe compromised, turning the health to a production system shock. If agricultural tasks are not performed on time, crops ready for harvest may be lost while planting may not be feasible challenging future food availability. In other words, food production systems may collapse with devastating impacts on food security. The mapping tool displays information on planting and harvesting months for key food and agriculture commodities. Planting and harvesting calendars, indicate the critical periods that the activities [...]

The COVID-19 pandemic is disrupting urban food systems worldwide, affecting the food security and nutrition of urban populations. With up to 70% of the global food supply destined for urban consumption, the disruption of urban food systems has particularly affected the food distribution and the food retail sectors. The management of the crisis by city and local governments can therefore play a major role in preventing the spread of the virus and, at the same time, in mitigating the disruptions in their food systems and any negative effects on vulnerable populations. It was consequently deemed very important for FAO to [...]

The COVID-19 pandemic is also affecting agricultural census activities. Currently, 62 countries are preparing (45 countries) or have conducted (17 countries) censuses of agriculture in the WCA 2020 round. A rapid appraisal and informal consultations with national agricultural census authorities reveal that some 34 countries reported delays or suspension of several census activities. Countries that have started or were about to start fieldwork and census enumeration have put these activities on hold until the crisis is over. Most countries agreed that the full impact on the preparation and implementation of national censuses will depend on the evolution of the crisis.

Measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 include strong restrictions of movement which dramatically change daily lives and impact agricultural livelihoods. These measures are particularly difficult for the rural poorest and most vulnerable, who tend to hold jobs and occupations which cannot be performed remotely. Many of the world’s poor depend on public spaces and movement for their livelihoods, including seasonal agricultural work and traveling to markets to sell or buy produce and/or inputs, etc. This briefs explains how social protection measures could shield the rural poor from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, while providing a series of social protection [...]

The policy brief reviews the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on migrants working in agri-food systems and their families in rural areas of origin. It points out some of the policy implications and presents key policy recommendations. Measures affecting the movement of people (internally and internationally) and resulting labour shortages, will have an impact on agricultural value chains, affecting food availability and market prices globally. At the same time, large shares of migrants work under informal or casual arrangements, which leave them unprotected, vulnerable to exploitation, poverty and food insecurity, and often without access to healthcare, social protection and the measures [...]