SUMMARY OF CONTENT OF THE DISCUSSION ABOUT COVID19 AND FOOD SECURITY
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Answer:
Alarmed by a potential rise in food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries and organizations are mounting special efforts to keep agriculture safely running as an essential business, markets well supplied in affordable and nutritious food, and consumers still able to access and purchase food despite movement restrictions and income losses.
Overview
Global agricultural markets continue to remain stable as food trade has remained more resilient than overall trade. Global production levels for the three most widely consumed staples (rice, wheat and maize) are at or near all-time highs. However, the prices of certain cash crops -- an important source of rural income -- have been depressed by the slowing of global demand.
Given the status of global food supplies, export restrictions are unwarranted and could hurt food security in importing countries. The World Bank has joined other organizations in calling for collective action to keep food trade flowing between countries.
In Bangladesh, a $96 million Emergency Action Plan, mobilized as part of a Livestock Dairy Development project will include cash transfers to vulnerable dairy and poultry farmers for business continuation.
In Bhutan, the World Bank has re-aligned its portfolio to support food distribution in the short term and enhance food production in the medium term through inputs supply and irrigation.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, we’re supporting the government, in conjunction with the World Food Programme, to improve the frequency and quality of food price and stock data, in particular around main urban consumption centers affected by COVID-19, to help plan for appropriate social protection, food and nutrition interventions and emergency response to food price hikes.
In Haiti, the Resilient Productive Landscape project is mobilizing emergency funding to benefit 21,500 family farmers to safeguard production for the next two cropping seasons, given that a reduction in remittances (estimated at 35% of GDP, prior to COVID-19) will affect the capacities of farmers to finance production costs. The financing will cover: (i) seeds, fertilizers, support to land preparation through plowing; (ii) small works respecting social distancing, including rehabilitation and cleaning of irrigation schemes; and (iii) communications campaigns to promote social distancing and personal sanitation and the application of mitigation measures against the pandemic to properly implement field activities. Implementation arrangements include the use of vouchers or cheques -- a mechanism that was used successfully following Hurricane Matthew in 2016.
In India, women's self-help groups, supported under the National Rural Livelihoods Mission co-financed by the World Bank, mobilized to meet shortages in masks and sanitizers, run community kitchens and restore fresh food supplies, provide food and support to vulnerable and high-risk families, provide financial services in rural areas, and disseminate COVID-19 advisories among rural communities. These self-help groups, built over a period of 15 years, tap the skills of about 62 million women across India.
In Kenya, we’re looking at leveraging digital technologies through ongoing partnerships with 15 AgTech startups to transform the delivery of inputs, soil testing, crop insurance, credit, extension advice and market linkages, to enable farmers to overcome temporary COVID-related constraints and ensure better targeting and more effective service delivery especially in remote areas in the long run.
In the Kyrgyz Republic, the World Bank supported, GAFSP-funded Agricultural Productivity and Nutrition Improvement Project, which focuses primarily on improving water infrastructure and developing the capacity of water users associations (WUAs), will begin distributing agricultural inputs such as seeds and fertilizer through 30 project WUAs to address vulnerable populations.
In Tajikistan, the existing Targeted Social Assistance system will provide time-bound cash transfers to food-insecure households with children under the age of 2 to mitigate the effects of increases in food prices and to protect children’s nutrition.
We’re working with countries to help them adopt appropriate food policy responses. These include:
treating food as an ‘essential service’ to keep food moving and opening special procedures (‘green channels’) for food, trade and agricultural inputs to ensure supply chains are kept open and functional.
incorporating necessary health and safety measures along segments of the food supply chain.
supporting the most vulnerable populations via safety net programs, complemented by food distributions in areas where supply chains are severely disrupted.
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