COVID-19 Impact on Agriculture and Food Security: Regional Perspective

Jun 27, 2020 | Centre of Excellence on Emerging Development Perspectives
View Original

Even before COVID-19 hit the world, more than 820 million people were already struggling with hunger and 2 billion people were malnourished. At the end of 2019, 135 million people experienced acute food insecurity and 183 million people were under stressed conditions, at the cusp of acute hunger in 55 countries and territories, according to the latest report by the Global Network Against Food Crises, an international alliance of the European Union, United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP).

Now the pandemic-triggered global economic recession is threatening to worsen the sufferings further while simultaneously de-accelerating the progress of the Sustainable Development Goal 2 of ending hunger and achieving food security and SDG 1 that seeks to end poverty in all its forms everywhere by 2030.

The WFP projects that by the end of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic could almost double the number of people suffering acute hunger, pushing it to more than a quarter of a billion and some 265 million people in low and middle-income countries will be in acute food insecurity unless swift action is taken.