Asia-Pacific’s smallholder family farmers produce most of the world’s food, yet they are facing a disproportionate impact on their livelihoods and food security due to the present coronavirus pandemic, a collaboration of FAO and advocacy groups warned today.

The COVID-19 impact on the region’s rural communities, and particularly those in developing countries, has resulted in economic slowdown and stagnation.  The pandemic has exposed vulnerabilities and inequalities within and among countries. Food, trade, health and climate are interdependent and the pandemic has revealed the fragility of these linkages.

Family farmers are experiencing a weakening in their purchasing power, increasing amounts of food loss, falling prices, and other disturbances caused mainly by the disruption of food chains. With low average incomes, even before the pandemic, smallholder family farmers are now enduring worsening conditions. Nevertheless, they continue risking their own health, while playing their fundamental role in feeding us all.

The pandemic has threatened worsening poverty, food insecurity, gender inequality and progress toward other Sustainable Development Goals. In Asia, home to 350 million undernourished people, more than any other region, the pandemic threatens to undo decades of gains in reducing poverty and ending hunger.