Question

write an essay outlining what is food security and the effect of COVID 19

Answer 1

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the etiological agent of the coronavirus induced disease 19 (COVID-19) that emerged in China late 2019 and causing a pandemic. As of 19 April 2020, 2,241,778 cases have been reported worldwide, of which 152,551 (6.8%) succumbed to the infection. SARS-CoV-2 belongs to the Sarbecovirus subgenus (genus Betacoronavirus, family Coronaviridae) together with SARS-CoV that emerged in 2002 causing ~8000 infections with a lethality of 10%. Both viruses crossed species barriers from an animal reservoir and can cause a life-threatening respiratory illness in humans. Since the first outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) in Wuhan, China, the disease is spreading worldwide. Individuals at the extreme of ages and those that are immunocompromised are at the most significant risk. All health care workers should understand the presentation of the disease, workup, and supportive care. Further, health professionals should be aware of the precautions necessary to avoid the contraction and spread of the disease.

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.

Global markets for food staples are well supplied and prices are generally stable. 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. There are encouraging signs that countries are heeding the lessons of past food price crises, with Agriculture Ministers from the G20, African Union, ASEAN countries and Latin American and Caribbean agreeing on the need to keep global food markets open and refrain from imposing new trade barriers so that food is not lacking.

However, as the coronavirus crisis unfolds, disruptions in domestic food supply chains and other shocks affecting food production, and loss of incomes and remittances are creating strong tensions and food security risks in many countries.

Labor shortages (due to morbidity, movement restrictions, social distancing rules) are starting to impact producers, processors, traders and trucking/logistics companies in food supply chains – particularly for food products that require workers to be in close proximity. At the same time, loss of income and remittances is reducing people’s ability to buy food and compensate farmers for their production. The United Nations World Food Programme has warned that an estimated 265 million people could face acute food insecurity by the end of 2020, up from 135 million people before the crisis.

Food security “hot spots” include:

• fragile and conflict-affected states, where logistics and distribution are difficult even without morbidity and social distancing.
• countries affected by multiple crises resulting from more frequent extreme weather events and pests such as the current locusts plague – the worst in decades— impacting food production in 23 countries.
• the poor and vulnerable, including the more than 820 million people who were already chronically food insecure before the COVID-19 crisis impacted movement and incomes.
• countries with significant currency depreciation, (driving up the cost of food imports) and countries seeing other commodity prices collapse (reducing their capacity to import food).

World Bank support

At the country level, the World Bank Group is working with governments and international partners to closely monitor domestic food and agricultural supply chains and how the loss of employment and income is impacting people’s ability to buy food.       

We’re building on existing projects and deploying short and long-term financing. Examples:

• In Angola, the World Bank-financed Commercial Agriculture Development Project is helping farmer cooperatives and small and mid-sized agricultural enterprises expand and improve their operations to meet the needs of local communities during the pandemic.
• 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 Liberia, we’re working with the government to ensure food supply chains are sustained. Although disruptions in the food supply chain are still minimal, logistical challenges are emerging. The Bank is responding by fast tracking certain activities and activating a Contingency Emergency Response Component (about $7.5 million) through Smallholder Agriculture Transformation and Agribusiness Revitalization Project (STAR-P) so the government can meet immediate food needs of vulnerable people, keep domestic supply chains moving, and support smallholder farmers to increase food production.
• In Pakistan, more than 18,000 mainly female-headed households will receive direct livelihood support through World Bank-financed projects to develop kitchen gardens, small scale livestock and agricultural activities.
• 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.

Prevention

World Bank experience with the Avian Influenza shows that cross-sectoral, coordinated investments in human, environmental and animal health (“One Health” approach) are a cost-effective way to manage risks and control diseases at the source. Over 70% of emerging infectious diseases (EID) in humans have their source in animals. Transmission of pathogens from animals to humans and EIDs are increasing in a rapidly changing environment, with deforestation, land-use change and rapid population growth amplifying the exposure of humans to diseases carried by animals.

Under the first COVID-19 package of World Bank Group financing, countries are able to invest in longer-term prevention, such as strengthened veterinary services, disease surveillance and food safety. Out of the first 25 projects approved for WB financing, 11 include One Health components. In India, for example, the COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness Project will improve disease surveillance systems in humans and animals and health information systems across the country.