The poor will be poorer
Just like the central role played by climate change in food security, the COVID-19 Pandemic too has severely impacted food security.
According to Save the Children, the Pandemic and lack of access to food are short term emergencies that have long term effects. The topic will be addressed in the upcoming FAO Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific, taking place in March in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The conference will start from the remarks made by the World Bank in a report published at the end of January. The report focusing on East Asia and the Pacific region found a negative relationship between the Pandemic, poverty and food insecurity.
COVID-19 has indeed exacerbated the economic and social gap between the poor and the well-off. Moreover, it threatens to undermine decades of progress made to protect the most vulnerable, triggering a vicious cycle of poverty.
How the Pandemic impacted food security
Having forced the entire world to move online, the Pandemic influences food security in a number of ways. In many countries, for instance, school is the place where vulnerable children have access to nutritious food they lack at home. Not having the possibility to attend schools, then, has caused a skyrocketing worsering of the nutrition conditions of children.
In addition, households are bound to experience great challenges in development stremming from the restrictions on movement. The latter have made it difficult to access the food supply chains, food supplies and humanitarian aid. Comparably, families have had to adapt to less expensive foods, to tackle the rising food prices, preferring staples to fresh foods.
Ultimately, the Pandemic has caused job loss, forcing people to sell assets, including livestock and other means of food production. As a result, not only households face greater debt, but they also face negative long term effects on their livelihood. Women, youth and lower-skilled workers are more likely to have experienced job loss and related food insecurity.
Are there any coping mechanisms?
In Meghalaya, in the North East of India, food insecurity represents a major problem, with almost 47% of children being undernourished. However, the trends give space to optimism to the highly agricultural region. During the Pandemic, the region received governmental support, but families mostly had to rely on their own means.
Although the region is below the malnourishment line, households have been able to cope with the Pandemic-induced vulnerability by relying on self-grown crops, and foraged foods. As a matter of fact, the region offers a great variety of crops, and foraging areas. Families have, therefore, leveraged on more traditional foods, prepared with foraged foods, and freshly grown greens.
From the analysis it is possible to conclude that cultivation, and subsequently access to land, is essential for single households to be able to respond to unexpected shocks.