DURING a webinar organized by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD), one of the speakers described the COVID-19 pandemic as “a wake-up call for all of us, irrespective of country.”
In his presentation on “Food security challenges and opportunities under the new normal – A global perspective,” Dr. Paul Teng, chair of the board of directors of the International Science for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications, started with the pre-COVID situation or the “baseline normal.”
In terms of food security status, he said Asia has two faces: one face experiencing spectacular economic growth and growing food demand and the other with large numbers of poor people with significant undernourishment.
“COVID is just one of those threats that farmers and societies face,” he said.
“We live in a region that has the highest frequency of extreme weather events. And every year, the calamities that befall us are the biggest causes of food insecurity.”
Both farmers and scientist also face the evergreen problem – pests and diseases.
Despite all the threats towards food security, Asia is a source of many food products.
He also reported that Asia ranks top three in agricultural exports in the world. At the same time, Asia is a major importer through the trade of soybean, wheat, corn, and animal proteins with long supply chains.
He then enumerated the effects of the pandemic on the supply side: shortage of inputs and labor for farming and food processing, agri-food enterprises going out of business, and price hikes.
On the demand side is reduced demand for agri products that leads to increased hunger and under-nutrition especially among the vulnerable sectors of society such a daily wage earners, children, pregnant women, and others.
To meet the challenges that COVID 19 has imposed on the supply side, he recommended the shortening of supply chains; formulate/implement policies to avoid export restrictions; and increase production/productivity of existing farms, self-production, support for locally produced food, R&D investments and entrepreneurship, and number of technology-enabled farms.
On the demand side, he mentioned to reduce waste and reuse food from decreased activity in F&B outlets; provide food for the vulnerable population; improve nutrition security; and privately and government-sponsored safety nets.
As for opportunities, agricultural technology has been seeing increasing investment and impact even before the pandemic.
There is also the digitization opportunity with digital farm economy, smart farming, ensuring inclusiveness, among others.
Because COVID-19 is a wake-up call, most of the countries’ response to the pandemic is merely reactive.
Teng highlighted the need for a paradigm shift in dealing with the pandemic, from reacting to preparing.
“At the bottom of all these, we must not forget the smallholder farmers who grow most of the food in Asia. Smallholders are hit hard by COVID 19.”
“It is important to continue to ensure the availability of agricultural inputs to them; strengthen land tenure security; promote inclusive agribusiness models; and facilitate better risk management for smallholders,” Teng said./PN
