Seminar on Impact of Covid-19 Outbreak Pandemic on Food Supply Chain in Markets in Gombe Metropolis
CHAPTER ONE
PURPOSE OF STUDY
The purpose of this article is to provide information about the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak in the food supply chain and to summarize the measures taken to minimize these effects.
CHAPTER TWO
Effects of pandemic on food supply chain
The Food supply chain can be divided into five stages, including agricultural production, postharvest handling, processing, distribution/ retail/service, and consumption. Two systems are being used in the food supply chain regarding food quality and safety. The First one is based on regulations and laws that use mandatory standards which are inspected by state agencies. The Second one is relying on voluntary standards which are defined by market laws or international associations (Bendekovic et al., 2015). Safety measures to ensure the continuity of food flow in each stage can be grouped as food employee’s health issues, personal hygiene, using personal protective equipments such as helmets and glove, sanitization of surfaces and working environments, safe handling/preparation/delivery of food, and maintenance of social distance. Protective measures in the last stages of the food supply chain are critical since more people can be potentially affected as moved towards the last stages (Rizou et al., 2020). Unlike foot and mouth disease, bird flu, Escherichia coli (E. coli), or Listeria, the COVID-19 pandemic does not directly affect production, as it does not spread directly through livestock or agricultural products (FAO, 2020a). However, due to the pandemic, governments around the world have made significant restrictions in the transportation (land, water, and air transport) of goods, as well as in the migration of labour. Reports showed that using the trucks for food distribution was declined to 60% since the restrictions in France which was 30% before the pandemic (FAO, 2020j; Bakalis et al., 2020). In developing and underdeveloped countries, temporary or seasonal employment is common, especially for planting, sorting, harvesting, processing, or transporting crops to markets. Therefore, the supply chain is significantly affected as a result of the absence of local or migrant workers due to sickness or travel restrictions imposed by lockdown. It also weakens not only production abilities for others, but also their own food safety, in cases where the disease directly affects their health or movement (FAO, 2020k). Especially, labour shortage due to COVID-19 crisis caused severe disruptions in some sectors such as livestock production, horticulture, planting, harvesting, and crop processing which are relatively labour intensive (Stephens et al., 2020). However, shortage of farmworkers was a major issue well before the COVID-19 outbreak, too (Richards and Rickard, 2020).
CHAPTER THREE
Effects of pandemic on consumer behavior
When the issue of how the COVID-19 pandemic affects consumers’ food demand is examined, it is seen that the demand varies depending on the price of foodstuffs, income level of consumers, sociodemographic situation, consumption, and shopping preferences and time constraints. In addition, the number of visits to food store and spending money on food in per visit changed (Bakalis et al., 2020; Cranfield, 2020). COVID-19 outbreak interrupted the daily routine and resulted in boredom which can be defined as high energy intake by the consumption of high amount of fat, carbohydrate, and proteins. In addition, quarantine caused stress in people and pushed them toward sugary foods for feeling positive, because carbohydrate-rich foods can be used as self-medicating components due to their ability to encourage serotonin production. However, these unhealthy eating habits may contribute to the development of obesity linked to the chronic inflammation and serious complications of COVID-19 (Muscogiuri et al., 2020). The closure of restaurants and limited service eating places affected the eating/purchasing habits and resulted in an unusual demand shift from food service to retail. Reports showed that purchasing food from supermarkets and using food services had the same ratio as 50% before the outbreak; however, it is almost 100% for supermarkets.
CHAPTER FOUR
Recommendations for small farmers
Countries should take measures to ensure the safety of agricultural workers. Onsite healthcare professionals should track the illness status of employees. Countries should build agricultural production collection centres at locations easily reached by small-scale farmers relating to mobility reduction. Agricultural production collection centres should be designed to provide high capacity storage (FAO, 2020c). Improved and advanced storage structures also can be used to minimize the loss of foods throughout the food value chain. However, modern facilities or improved technologies entail higher production costs as it requires additional capital injection. Therefore, small- and medium-sized agricultural enterprises can maintain their activities using the capital injections from government or donors (Tetteh Anang et al., 2015). Food banks can play an important role considering the horizontal and vertical coordination mechanisms with farmer associations that make contractual agriculture arrangement. Primarily, It would be a way to help farmers to create new markets by selling their unsold produces to food banks and make connection between farmers and vulnerable people during COVID-19 outbreak (Jackson and Yurkevich, 2020). Second, whenever possible, countries can deploy warehouse receipt systems, allowing small-scale producers to improve access for financial loans and get the best price for their product. This receipt helps small farmers to store crops safely in a modern storage facility and allows them to sell their product later when the prices are higher. It also can be used as possessory collateral for a loan (Miranda et al., 2019).
CHAPTER FIVE
Conclusion
During a pandemic, continuing the flow of the supply in agriculture and food sector, which is one of the most important sectors together with health, is vital to prevent the food crisis and reducing the negative impact on the global economy. Although no major problems have been observed in the food supply chains so far it remains unclear in the face of an uncertain future. As a result, each country has to realize the severity of the situation and sometimes should tighten or loosen the measures according to the spread of the pandemic. The supply chain also should be flexible enough to respond to the challenges in the food supply chain.
Recommendation
The COVID-19 outbreak seriously threatens food safety, security, and nutrition. The economic chaos due to the pandemic threatens economic access and physical availability of food. Disruptions and possible problems in marketing, logistics, and trade systems may restrict access to food in some places and times, therefore, hunger and malnutrition problems may appear (FAO, 2020g). Report from World Food Program showed that the number of people facing extreme hunger can increase to 265 million in 2020 as a result of COVID-19 (WFP, 2020a). Another study performed by Headey et al. (2020) indicated that COVID-19 leads to 14.3% increase in the prevalence of wasting among children who are younger than 5 years old due to malnutrition or interruption of health and social protection in low and middle-income countries.
References
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