WEBINAR. COVID-19 Risk and Food Value Chains.

11 December 2020.  COVID-19 Risk and Food Value Chains.

The short- and long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food systems remain uncertain, raising concerns about food security. The pandemic’s public health impacts, as well as the economic and logistical impacts of pandemic response measures such as lockdowns and travel restrictions, have the potential to disrupt food value chains around the globe. Such disruptions could result in labor shortages, decreased production, volatile food prices, and reduced food availability and access. 

Understanding how COVID-19 is affecting local and global food value chains is key in establishing effective policy responses to mitigate the harmful impacts of the ongoing public health crisis. This webinar will examine results of several recent studies on how various food value chains are responding to COVID-19.

This webinar organized by the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM) and Food Security Portal on December 11, 2020 shared results of recent studies in Ethiopia, Nigeria, and India on how food value chains are responding to COVID-19. 

• Kalle Hirvonen (IFPRI) presented findings from a study on food consumption and food security in Ethiopia, using a unique panel survey of a representative distribution of households in Addis Ababa. 
• Sudha Narayanan (Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research) discussed bottlenecks in food and agriculture supply chains in India following closures of several Agricultural Produce Market Committee mandis and presented policy recommendations to ease the flow of goods. 
• Ben Belton (WorldFish / Michigan State University) presented findings on the impact of COVID-19 on Nigeria’s fish value chains, which are crucial to the country’s food security and employment opportunities.