By Dr. Lystra Fletcher-Paul
As the Covid-19 pandemic rapidly unfolds around the world and particularly the Caribbean, people are now awakening to the new reality of the far-reaching impacts that this pandemic will have on their lives in the future. One of the sectors that will be affected is regional food and nutrition security.
There will be impacts on all dimensions of food and nutrition security – food availability, access, utilisation, and stability.
Food availability, both from local production and imports, will be reduced. In terms of local production, our farmers, with their average age being 60 years and over, are among the most vulnerable to the virus.
Food and feedstock imports which, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), account for over 80 per cent of the food consumed in some countries of the region, are likely to be considerably reduced as our foreign suppliers grapple with the impacts of the pandemic in their own countries and protect their markets to ensure their own food security and sovereignty.
Panic-buying and hoarding will also exacerbate food availability and contribute to increases in food prices.
Food access, both economic and physical, will also be affected. Moreover, food prices are expected to rise as supply chains decline. Markets for food will also be reduced. With the closure of restaurants and reduced hotel occupation, caused by the travel restrictions, many farmers who sell their produce directly to restaurants will no longer have markets for their fresh produce. Furthermore, farmers have indicated that they are reluctant to go to the local wholesale and retail markets to sell their produce for fear of contracting the virus.
Poor and vulnerable
The poor and vulnerable will be most heavily affected. With the closure of school, many students who rely on the school-feeding programme as their source of a healthy nutritious meal of the day will now have to go without food.
The FAO estimates that school feeding is the most reliable source of food for 10 million children in Latin America and the Caribbean. Unless local food production is increased to fill the void left by reduced imports, problems related to malnutrition caused by insufficient food are likely to arise if the food shortages last for a prolonged period.
Additionally, malnutrition caused by eating foods that are nutritionally deficient will further contribute to the problems of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which currently plague our region. It is also noteworthy that persons with these NCDs are among the most vulnerable to the effects of the disease.
In an effort to address these challenges, farmers are being called upon to increase local production, albeit after the proverbial horse has bolted from the stable. Stability of food supply, especially in times of crises, is the fourth dimension of food security that needs to be addressed.
As we head into the dry season, do farmers have sufficient water to increase production? Moreover, countries that reach their peak Covid-19 infection levels later in the year may have to contend with hurricane season as well – a double whammy!
Are farmers equipped to adapt to the impacts of climate change? Do they have sufficient water? Do they practice climate-smart agriculture? Do they have access to the inputs and information to help them to adapt to climate change and increase production? There are also other factors to be considered such as market distortions, gluts, and increased praedial larceny.
What can be done?
What can and should be done to mitigate the impacts of the coronavirus on food and nutrition security in the region? The onus is not only on the part of governments or the ministries of agriculture. Coordinated action needs to be taken by all stakeholders in the agriculture sector – farmers, consumers, technicians, private sector, and government, as well as other sectors such as health, education, and finance. It is also important to employ a mixture of short- and medium-term, as well as temporary actions.
In the short term, local production by farmers and backyard gardeners can be promoted. In this regard, inputs such as seeds, seedlings, and fertilisers need to be made available to these food producers in sufficient quantities.
In Trinidad and Tobago, input suppliers have indicated that they have already run out of seeds, seedlings, and potting soil. One supplier even said that his supplier in Miami had signalled that he would not be
