By: Dr. Parveen Kumar, Dr. D. Namgyal
The deadly COVID 19 virus that threatens the whole mankind has put the lives and livelihoods of many at risk. The pandemic is no longer a regional issue and with the virus spreading fastly across the globe, fears are rising. What is more pathetic is that still there is no cure for this deadly disease. As everything is locked down, the world is heading for a global economic slowdown too.
This slowdown will severely affect the developing and third world countries. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in its ‘The State of Food Security and Nutrition Report 2019’ had warned that the economic slowdown and contraction were associated with rising hunger level in 65 out of 77 countries in recent years. Currently about 820 million peoples around the world are experiencing chronic hunger. Of this number, 113 millions are coping with acute severe insecurity. The acute severe insecurity is a type of hunger that poses an immediate threat to their lives and livelihood. This type of hunger will render them reliant on external assistance to survive. If COVID 19 cases spread to the 44 countries that need external food assistance or in the 53 countries home to 113 million people experiencing acute food insecurity and many of whose has public health and social protection systems face capacity constraints, the consequences would be drastic and it will than definitely be a catastrophe. Further, the countries with high commodity import dependence will see their undernourishment rates increasing
Agriculture being at the core of the economy of almost every country is also being affected by it.
The agricultural food supply chain is a complex web that involves producers, consumers, input suppliers, traders, commission agents, the government policies, the NGOs, the private agencies the processors, storage, transportation and many others. This COVID 19 outbreak is happening at a time when the ‘rabi’ harvest has already picked up in some northern parts of the country. With everybody ‘locked in’ farming community is not able to harvest the wheat crop; the delayed harvest of the crop may affect the crop yield. Challenges have also come up in terms of logistics involving the movement of food grains from one place to another due to restricted movement. Things are going to deteriorate further if the farmers are not able to harvest and the agencies are not able to procure the food grains from the farmer fields. This will severely hamper their financial capabilities. It will also affect the ‘Kharif’ season as the farmers will not have the necessary money to arrange for inputs for the ‘Kharif’ season. The livestock sector will also have to bear the brunt of the COVID 19. The access to fodder will be reduced with the locked down conditions continuing for some more time.
The fresh vegetables and fruits being highly perishable need to be transported immediately to the consumers. The transport restrictions and quarantine measures will aggravate the situation further.
In addition to agriculture the other sector which is also expected to be hit hard by this COVID 10 outbreak is the fisheries sector. The fish provides more than 20 per cent of the average per capita animal protein intake for 3 billion peoples, more than 50 per cent in some less developed countries and it is one of the most traded commodities in the world. Thus the fisher men in the countries which rely heavily on fishing sector are the ones to be under severe insecurity. Their lives and livelihood security are at stake. The poultry sector has also become the casualty of this rumors arising out of this pandemic. The rumor that consumption of chicken is related to COVID 19 has made a dent in the sale of the poultry products. Indian Poultry industry has been losing USD $1.5 million per day due to lower prices. The price of broilers has been reduced in many of the Indian states. Peoples have stopped consuming chicken.
Millions of small scale poultry farmers across the country are reeling as the sales have hit an all time low over false claims that chickens are the carrier of deadly virus. With the labour back to their homes, the agricultural sector will also face labour shortage. The non availability of labour during peak situation will further delay harvesting of the crop and sowing of the next crop.
The present situation demand proactive and protected measures. The government at the centre and in the states should meet the immediate food needs of the most vulnerable and deprived sections of the society. They should also expand their social safety net programmes so as to prevent malnutrition, ensure the flow of minimum cash to meet the household needs of the poor and daily wage earners. The Mid Day Meal (MDM) is an important scheme to meet the nutritional requirements of the school going children. Now that the educational institutes are closed, dry ration should be distributed among the students. Peoples should also make it sure that food wastage does not takes place. The government should ensure that quality seeds are available to the farmers for ensuing kharif season. India needs 250 lakh quintals of seeds for the ‘kharif’ season. The government of different countries should ensure that the trade related costs are minimized and no measures are imposed which restrict the trade and mobility of commodities across the countries. ICT can also play a very important role in containing the spread of false information about this virus and in updating the masses about how to contain the deadly virus. At the same time, all of us as responsible citizens of the country should follow social distancing, maintain personal hygiene and remain indoor. Collectively, we will win and win definitely.
*The authors are scientist and Head KVK-Leh; can be reached at [email protected]