As coronavirus is exposing the fragile food supply chain in the world – and can leave millions of Hungry

Jitendra Bangar tried to save his crop cabbage. The farmer, who lives in Bhiwandi, India, in the north-east of Mumbai suburbs, spent the first weeks of April spray water on the vegetables which had collected and stored in the hope that it would keep them fresh, canned until to sell. But with strict blocking measures in place due COVID-19, the trader from Mumbai, which is usually Bangar product to buy is not published. Bangar, 30, as the 25 miles to Mumbai, cabbage travel in sales, but was worried about the capture and dissemination of Crown-lives with 11 other family members, including his grandparents. So instead he sold some of his cabbages at the local market for a small fraction of the price normally get. He handed the rest of the harvest to the people in his village or threw them away. “Vegetable expire quickly in the heat,” he says. “A lot of it went to waste.” Stories like Bangar showing how the 19-COVID pandemic is deeply disturbing the global food supply at almost all levels. These problems and the economic destruction caused by the virus, could have devastating effects on the ability of people around the world to access and afford food. At least 265 million people are in danger, in 2020 to go hungry, according to an estimate by the World Food of the United Nations Development Program (WFP) in April-almost double that in 2019. This despite the fact that sufficient should experts agree to eat there, to feed the world this year. Around the world, harvests are losing because workers are out of work, forbidden, they can not travel on farms or will not work, for fear of contracting the virus. transformation of the US meat plants were closed during COVID-19 outbreaks. Farmers in the United States and in the U.K. They were forced to dump milk because the demand for restaurants and cafes in the block collapsed. traffic restrictions it difficult for farmers to obtain seed and fertilizer to plant new crops, or those who have local food markets that have closed the harvest to send in some places. Aggravation of the problem, some countries have imposed export bans in Vietnam a ban on rice exports announced in March, although it was later overturned, and Russia announced in April a quota on grain exports until June trade bloc than in other countries leave their feed people. Then there is the growing problem of food you get. With the collapse of the global economy caused by the closure of the whole world, millions of people who are already struggling to feed their families now face dry dangerous situations such as work processes and evaporate. And sometimes, depending on food imports, prices could explode because of supply chain disruptions. The small island in the Pacific nation of Kiribati, for example, has already seen the cost of rice rose by almost 50%. enough food to go around? should be sufficient food stocks world, and projections show 2020 a good year for crops, experts say. A report on the commodities market, published on May 7, was based on estimates of various international organizations, including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Trade Organization, says that while soybean stocks can easily because the South American countries more reduction in crop conditions, wheat and corn stocks for this season will be the last best year. rice stocks should be about the same. But while “global supply of basic food products remain abundant,” he warns the report says that “the shocks created by COVID-19 started a toll income on food markets in the past month.” The question is whether the food can in the right place in time is collected and sent. “The question of the interruption of food supply is more than food shortages,” Julie Howard, senior adviser for Global Food Security at the Center based in Washington for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told TIME. , Protectionist concerns including temporary trade policy on wheat and rice flow. A drop in oil prices and a decline in the production of ethanol and power demand now led to sharp drop in corn prices, according to the report. Poor vulnerable Even first crown in the world swept, 135 million people in 55 countries have faced acute hunger, especially because of the conflicts, climate change and the economic crisis, WFP estimated. If the pandemic taken into account, this figure almost doubled to 265 million. “COVID-19 is potentially catastrophic for millions of people who are already hanging by a thread. It is a hammer blow for millions more who can only eat if they have a job,” chief economist Arif Husain WFP said to earn in a press release. “Lockdown and the global economic recession have decimated their nest egg. It takes COVID-19 push-just another shock-like over the edge.” Many of those who are at risk of starvation, are more difficult access to food during arrests and restrictions of movement are faced available. Howard says, “The food system in low-income countries that products, processes and market directly to consumers through restaurants and street stalls selling is done mainly by micro and small businesses.” But even if you have access to food, there are many who will not be able to afford it. The International Monetary Fund projected in April that the global economy could be 3% in 2020. The decline pandemic to wipe out the equivalent of 195 million jobs around the world, the International Organization of the Work of Nations United. Paul Teng, an adjunct senior fellow in international studies in Singapore Nanyang Technological University (NTU), says that affects millions of daily wage workers across Asia and Africa, who had a hit on their income and have lost “the ‘economic access “to food. The worry is the largest life for people in conflict zones and refugee camps, affecting countries, including parts of Nigeria, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen, according to the World Food Program. Humanitarian organizations say they are concerned that, if trade flows are disturbed, they may not be able to provide assistance to the most needy. “It ‘important that the commercial trading takes place regardless of whatever else continues to flow around it,” warns Husain. “Quite simply, millions of lives depend on the flow of trade, and the impact of the disease on human food safety is enormous over.” Import of trust lands that are dependent on imports, while addressing tribe. “Net food importing countries, whose revenues are affected by the recession, are seriously affected” Máximo Torero, chief economist and deputy director general of the department for economic and social development of the FAO, says TIME. Depending on how hard COVID-19 visits to the global economy, 80 million people in developing countries, net-food importers could find chronically not enough food in a setting modeled FAO. Scenario “Mild” in the context of a more optimistic nearly 40 million people are affected. Howard says that countries in Africa imports about $35 billion a year in food. “Countries like Nigeria are the main importers of food, but now they are hit twice by COVID-19 and the fall in oil prices, the main source of income of the country, the decimation of the government budget and making food and other imports more expensive, “he says. Price volatility is not helping the situation. “It ‘s completely unpredictable at the time, some prices rise, some prices due to restrictions and export bans to go down,” says Nicolas Bidault, senior adviser for food security in the Asia-Pacific WFP office. Fluctuations in prices left the importing countries responsible “extremely vulnerable to risks such as price fluctuations during a global crisis,” said Pam. Small Pacific island states are particularly important. In the middle of the South Pacific, the people of Kiribati are concerned about what the future will bring. Ruiti Uriano Aretaake, a program coordinator at the local FSP Kiribati NGO says that people have started to buy stopped on imported products such as rice, flour and sugar in the fear that not enough Most flights are to be taken to and from the ‘island become. Prices have already risen significantly. A sack of rice that normally sells for about $10.75 hours costs about $15.65. “We are concerned about the future,” he says. Today restrictions may in the future food shortages bring Some experts fear that the disturbances could hurt today the supply of food in the future. Howard CSIS says there is a “significant risk” that the impact on food supply capacity, plants and food products for the upcoming planting season when farmers stop pandemic could be extended. There have been logistical problems. In the Philippines, for example, where strict blockade to enforce the measures, the largest seed organization in the country, said said in April that the seeds were caught at checkpoints. The system failure is now a problem for regions of the world. Howard says the start of the next agricultural season begins in tropical and subtropical areas in May. Most African agricultural systems are the rain, he says, which means that if farmers are not prepared land and crops before the rainy season, is extending the production is likely to fall for the next season, the impact of the pandemic. In Asia, where rice is a staple, April and May are important months for the production of grain, according to Teng NTU. He says that if the plants are not made at the right time, the entire season could be in jeopardy. “If the blockade continues, if the ports to ship out allowed if farmers can not harvest their crops and it not if farmers do there are plants for their next season floating around some really enter doomsday scenarios is that I hope turns not reality. “what the world needs to do to FAO, to avoid Torero for more actions, known in a document published at the end of March and the emergency food aid food shortage, expansion and improvement of protection social and improve support for small farmers’ productivity and ability to bring goods to market. (They have in China, for example, e-commerce platforms came into the market of agricultural products, which would otherwise have gone unsold.) Global food trade needs openly and key countries considered that the export staple food should try to minimize the logistical problems, the paper said. Some experts say that the crisis can have long lasting effects on the food supply chain. Howard says he expects to shorten the food chain, so that countries need to be delivered around the world, do not rely on food. “The devastating effects of the pandemic, the important incentives for executives, private sector and donors can provide investments to expand the development of more productive goal, climate resilient and healthy national food and agricultural systems,” he says. Bangar, the farmer from India, is confident about the future, despite the loss of its last harvest. It has already started to plant some eggplant. He says if the eggplants are prepared about a month to collect he try the vegetables for sale in their village when the dealer does not return from Mumbai. “We hope everything will be better,” he says. “I do not know what lies ahead, but we’re farmers and there will always be demand for food.” Abhishyant Kidangoor / Hong Kong.
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