1) Impact of COVID-19 outbreak in NENA region
How does/did the COVID-19 outbreak exacerbate the challenges faced by small-scale family farmers (SSFF)?
We conducted two rapid-assessment activities which assessed the impact of COVID-19 and associated partial lockdowns and curfews-imposed in Egypt on 1) a dairy value chain and 2) an artichoke value chain in May-June 2020.
For dairy farmers, the curfew interrupted the cows’ milking schedule. Farmers were not able to milk their cows at 7pm as generally scheduled, and were left with two options: 1) to milk their cows earlier which results in less milk supply, and 2) to milk their cows as scheduled but not sell the last batch of milk. In both scenarios, farmers sold less milk, and thus earned less. In addition, the full-day curfew during the weekends meant that farmers could not sell the milk they produce on these days. Farmers who quantified their loss indicated that it is about a quarter or a third of output. A few farmers had to incur some extra costs as some of them started to sanitize their barns. Another farmer complained about the unavailability of veterinary services, due to COVID-19, which puts them at risk if any of the cattle become sick.
For artichoke farmers, market disruptions in Italy and Spain meant that the demand for Egyptian artichokes plummeted as almost all production is exported. In a very good season the price per artichoke bud can go as high as EGP 5, this season amid the international market lockdowns and the decrease in exports, the artichoke price started at EGP 2 earlier this season and dropped down to EGP 0.50 in March and April. All farmers in the sample reported to have sold their harvest at a loss at a price of EGP 0.50. Some farmers left artichokes unharvested and tried to switch to other crops, but many were bound by contracts with traders to deliver the harvest even at unprofitable prices.
And what are the main areas of interventions that could efficiently build SSFF resilience and ensure sustainable livelihood?
For dairy farmers, the government of Egypt wisely allowed exceptions to the imposed law (for the implementation of curfew hours and the free movement of food trucks). Yet, better coordination with other government officials at the local level is needed, since milk collection centers were not exempted from the curfew hours, and some trucks were stopped by local officers unaware of the policy.
For artichoke farmers, access to information on commodity market prices can help safeguard farmers from further losses and unfavorable payment conditions with traders. Additionally, the current contracting arrangements between farmers and exporters are very simple and either place the risk on the farmer in the case of payment at harvest or on the exporter in the case of pre-payment. This burden could be shared more fairly through the promotion and enforcement of legally binding contractual arrangements between exporters and farmers or distributed more widely through the development of futures markets.
Can you share success examples in the region?
There are some relatively better experiences from Jordan (see a discussion here). Digital solutions and digitalization of payments and essential government services is mentioned as an important factor in reducing COVID-19 related disruptions to food systems.
2) Sustainable transition towards more sustainable agri-food systems
How can innovation and digital solutions accelerate such transition of the agi-food systems?
Digital tools and innovations can help to connect smallholders with markets and international markets. Although smallholders produce large share of global food, they are usually marginalized by major actors and markets. Digital tools can help these smallholders leapfrog the benefits from larger and international markets.
How can the UNDFF provide tools and measures that help SSFF facing the climate and socioeconomic challenges?
UNDFF can help SSFF by supporting and working with partners who are engaged in the production of climate resilient innovations and new knowledge that can improve farmers’ resilience to climate change.
3) Towards an inclusive and equitable growth
Based on your experience, what are effective strategies, instruments or mechanisms to ensure adequate access to services, resources and social protection among marginalized or vulnerable groups, including in humanitarian contexts?
Cash transfers are an effective mechanism for social protection, including in humanitarian contexts. IFPRI conducted impact evaluations of a national cash transfer program, Takaful and Karama, in Egypt, and a cash-plus intervention titled “Cash for Nutrition” in Yemen. Takaful is a conditional cash transfer program, but conditionalities had not yet been implemented at the time of the evaluation. “Cash for Nutrition” features a soft conditionality in which households receiving cash are told that they must attend mandatory nutritional training sessions. In practice, there was no penalty for not attending the sessions, but the vast majority of beneficiary households attended the sessions and even some non-beneficiary women from the same communities also attended. The targeted households in Yemen were poorer than the beneficiaries in Egypt, so the cash transfers in Yemen represented a more significant increase in household budgets.
Our evaluation of Takaful in Egypt found a significant impact on beneficiary consumption and decrease in poverty. Notably, beneficiaries used the transfers to invest in higher quality diets, with increased consumption of fruit and meat/poultry. Beneficiaries also increased spending on school supplies and transportation for their children. While the cash transfers benefit the household as a whole, we did not find evidence that the transfers increased women’s bargaining power within the household, in spite of the transfers being directed to women.
Our evaluation of Yemen’s Cash for Nutrition program found that cash transfers combined with nutritional education had significant positive impacts on maternal and child dietary diversity, child weight-for-height, and child height-for-age, and significantly decreased the probability of children being diagnosed with moderate or severe acute malnutrition. The greatest impacts tended to be among the poorest tercile of households included in the program.
Despite the informality of the agriculture sector, any support for smallholder family farming can and should go hand in hand with the promotion of the Decent work Agenda. Family farmers are engaged in arduous and sometimes hazardous work to cut costs and compensate for the farm’s low productivity to an extent of involving children too, based on your experience please give three priority actions to enable decent employment for rural smallholders, youth and women and to eliminate child labour in family farming.
- Connect smallholders with local and international markets
- Revamp existing poorly equipped extension services to support smallholders.
- Encourage and invest in sustainable resource use (including land and water resources).
4) Enabling environment for the implementation of UNDFF
What are the bottlenecks –any of the above institutions may encounter in achieving the UNDFF implementation in the region and how to overcome them? E.g. in terms of policies, financial resources, technical capacities, etc.
Access to high quality data is critical for evidence-driven policy. Too often, government ministries collect data that it never published or shared, even with other ministries, leading to duplication of efforts. While there a valid privacy concerns, there should also be an effort to build a culture of transparency with government data, which enables the research and academic community to provide independent analysis and evaluation of the effectiveness of government policies.
Clemens Breisinger