This crisis can be regarded as a sudden onset disaster for which a rapid response approach is necessary. The impact was immediate and widespread, but at the same time, the information on what policy instrumets would work the best in the current circumstances in order to mitigate the impacts was very limited. Having the strategic importance of the agriculture for the food security it was necessary for policymakers to be vigilant and timely undertake active measures to support the opertors in the sector to continue producing and distributing the goods in dramatically changed environment. The main challenge in the very moment was the administration to shift its normal organizational structure into a crisis management mode in order to become capable to cope with the health risks while supporting the sector. In my view the national and international organizations including FAO needed a lot of time for undertaking the initial actions althought the crisis appeared a few months before in China. It has been treated as a local incident with underestimated global impact.
I think that the main lessons is to prepare ourselves better for similar situation in the future which might be experienced even very soon as second COVID-19 wave, now with having ready contingency plans and protocols for optimal acting of the participants in the sector in given conditions. In addition, it has emphasizied the importance of the alternative marketing channels based on the modern technologies and short supply which can also improve the current unfortunate small-scale farmers' position in the overall distribution of value in the chain.
Here is the link to my snap analysis made in the very beggining of the crisis about the impact of the outbreak to the Macedonian agriculture https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/analysis-impact-global-coronavirus-pande…
And the link of the article on crisis management toolkit of measures and instruments for policymakers to response on the consequences of the COVID19 in agriculture and food supply also prepared when there ws no similar documents publicaly avaliable
The real impact assesment is more or less similar as the forecasted and shall be carried out in the comming period.
Sr. Perica Ivanoski