Assessing the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Agricultural Production in Southeast Asia: Toward Transformative Change in Agricultural Food System

Abstract

How will the COVID-19 pandemic affect the agriculture sector in Southeast Asia? Clearly, any disruptions in the agricultural food systems would create supply and demand shocks that would impact on the agriculture sector's immediate and long-term economic performance and food security contribution. Overall, the COVID-19 pandemic during the first quarter of year 2020 is estimated to result in 3.11 percent or 17.03 million tons reduction in aggregate volume of agricultural production in Southeast Asia due to decline in agricultural farm labor affecting 100.77 million individuals. This crisis could translate to 1.4 percent decrease in GDP of the Southeast Asian region, which is equivalent to USD 3.76 billion. Ensuring a systemic transformation of the agricultural systems into resilient, sustainable, productive, and inclusive food systems would be crucial for the future of Southeast Asia.

The effects on European importers’ food safety controls in the time of COVID-19

“… Hossain (2020) showed that in the short, medium and long term, food safety challenges due to COVID-19 have varied among the member countries of the Asian Productivity Organization. Similarly, Gregorioa and Ancog (2020) concluded that, in Southeast Asia, the experience of this pandemic should be drawn upon to ensure food safety by treating it as a coordinated problem between the public and private sectors. In a study carried out in Bangladesh, Nur-E-Alam et al (2020) recommended meeting citizens’ food needs with local supplies to minimise the risk of impacts on food safety.…”

Covid-19 pandemic in the lens of food safety and security

“…Taking Southeast Asia as an example, the disruptions of supply chains could translate into huge demand shocks, for the first quarters of year 2020 only, a 3% decline or 17.03 million tons reduction in aggregate volume of production that estimate affecting 100.77 million individuals were recorded. This economical lost is equivalence to 1.4% decrease of GDP or USD 3.76 billion ( Gregorioa and Ancog, 2020 ). Shortage at the supermarkets is not caused by a disruption in the global supply chain but only a temporal shortage at retailer supply chains due to panic buying by the consumers (Voegele, 2020) which is quickly resolved at almost all supermarkets across the globe with stabilised supply ( OECD, 2020 ).…”

Agri‐food sector and entrepreneurship during the COVID‐19 crisis: A systematic literature review and research agenda

“…Seventeen studies were collected under the AGRI2 category (Alekseev, Ruschickaya, & Yurchenko, 2020; Barcaccia et al, 2020; Blay‐Palmer et al, 2020; Christiaensen et al, 2020; Deaton & Deaton, 2020; Dupouy & Gurinovic, 2020; Fanzo et al, 2020; Gregorioa & Ancog, 2020; Hossain, 2020; Kennedy, Jafari, Stamoulis, & Callens, 2020; Ma, Peng, Soon, et al, 2020; Mausch et al, 2020; Popovic et al, 2020; Rowan & Galanakis, 2020; Savary et al, 2020; Singh et al, 2020; Sperling et al, 2020).…”

“…Domestic food supply was significantly affected by labor shortages, disruption of distribution systems, loss of income (Savary et al, 2020; Singh et al, 2020) as well as the massive loss of agricultural products that were impossible to transfer due to restrictive measures imposed by governments (Ma et al, 2020). For example, the food demand shocks in Southeast Asia were huge due to disruptions in the food supply chain, equivalent to a 1.4% decrease in GDP (Gregorioa & Ancog, 2020). The effects of COVID‐19 on countries' food supply chain under civil unrest, political isolation, or underinvestment in public health are adverse.…”