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The COVID-19 pandemic poses a substantial risk to agricultural input supply chains. It can detrimentally affect access to and availability of inputs, including seeds, fertilizers and pesticides, as well as labour. As such, disruptions to the supply and demand of inputs will have diverse impacts across and within countries and will need to be reflected in different policy responses depending on the context. This brief presents the policy implications to be considered given the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on agricultural input markets and it outlines policy recommendations to mitigate short- and long-run impacts.   

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 [...]

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 [...]

People living in context prone to or affected by conflict suffer from many forms of deprivation. The international community plays a crucial role in strengthening the wellbeing of affected populations, including their food security. Unfortunately, quite often people exposed to conflict are not reached by national or international assistance because of targeting, accessibility, and marginalization. This can ultimately translate into a further deterioration of their food security status. This paper combines a geo-referenced household dataset collected in South Sudan in 2017 with the Armed Conflict Location and Events Data (ACLED), including information on conflict events. The collection of a very detailed [...]

It is projected that climate change will affect rainfall patterns in South Asia and will contribute to a decline in water availability for rice cultivation in the region. In Sri Lanka, where rice is both the staple food and the primary crop grown by farmers, reductions in water availability for rice cultivation has serious impacts on farmers’ welfare and national food security. The Overarching Agricultural Policy in Sri Lanka recognizes the importance of adapting and building resilience to climate change in order to achieve national development and food security objectives. A key policy thrust of the agricultural policy framework is to [...]

This policy brief analyses institutional challenges faced by Guyana’s agricultural sector to promote diversification and development. Agricultural development in Guyana is strongly correlated with agricultural diversification, hence diversification strategies can be used to promote growth in this sector. The identified challenges in the analysis that currently hamper diversification and trade of Guyana’s agricultural products include high tariff and non-tariff barriers, low level of direct investment, and a lack of physical infrastructure. Furthermore, missing quality and quantity capacities of farmers as well as the lack of a working sanitary and phytosanitary regime hinders intra-regional trade and import substitution. It is recommended [...]

The brief outlines FLAGPH's and the Philippines Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department (CPBRD) collaborative efforts to undertake knowledge exchange sessions that can provide relevant inputs to the preparation of a legislative agenda towards sustained rural development and agricultural growth.

Georgia has been a Member of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) since 1995. In 2004, FAO strengthened its presence there by making the FAO Subregional Representative for Central and Eastern Europe the FAO Representative in Georgia and establishing a fully-fledged representation in Tbilisi. FAO is supporting national development priorities to create and implement an institutional, legal and regulatory environment, as well as lending technical assistance on key projects at the Government’s request. It is working to strengthen Georgia’s institutional disaster-management capacity and helping to align Government policies with European structures and standards, so as to [...]

This brief details the three functional elements of climate vulnerability: risk exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity, in order to assess the interactions between participation in Malawi’s largest public works programme, the Malawi Social Action Fund (MASAF) and three widely promoted climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices. Using three waves of national panel household survey data, we find that participation in MASAF significantly increases the likelihood that farm households adopt CSA practices. This suggests that MASAF participation improves farmers’ adaptive capacity by reducing direct and indirect constraints to adopting climate adaptive farm practices. Moreover, we empirically demonstrate that the joint treatment effect of [...]

This paper aims to identify the channels of transmissions of the COVID-19 pandemic into the food and agriculture sectors and, based on this, to delineate the degrees of exposure to the COVID-19 shock by geographic region. Primary production, trade and final consumption are analysed in detail and, where possible, quantified. Based on results of the analysis, a country taxonomy of the exposure is developed and presented.