Growing and Eating Food during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Farmers’ Perspectives on Local Food System Resilience to Shocks in Southern Africa and Indonesia

Abstract

The COVID-19 outbreak forced governments to make decisions that had adverse effects on local food systems and supply chains. As a result, many small-scale food producers faced difficulties growing, harvesting, and selling their goods. This participatory research examines local small-scale farmers’ challenges as farmers but also as consumers and their coping strategies during the month of April and one week in June 2020. The study was initiated and conceptualized in collaboration with small-scale farmer members of an existing research network in selected urban and rural areas in South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Indonesia. Participants co-designed the research, collected and uploaded data through digital survey tools, and contributed to data analysis and interpretation. A common observation across regions is that the measures imposed in response to COVID-19 highlighted and partly exacerbated existing socio-economic inequalities among food system actors. Strict lockdowns in Cape Town, South Africa, and Masvingo, Zimbabwe, significantly restricted the production capacity of small-scale farmers in the informal economy and created more food insecurity for them. In Maputo, Mozambique, and Toraja and Java, Indonesia, local food systems continued to operate and were even strengthened by higher social capital and adaptive capacities.

COVID-19, Livestock Systems and Food Security in Developing Countries: A Systematic Review of an Emerging Literature

“…The physical causes include problems with logistics restrictions in relation to transportation, distribution and delivery, and closure of primary and secondary livestock markets [ 35 , 53 , 70 ]. The economic accessibility to food was linked to layoffs of farm labor, unemployment, loss of incomes and livelihoods, reduced purchasing power, and reduced remittances [ 51 , 52 , 63 , 71 ]. The magnitude of these issues related to accessibility to livestock-source food was linked to the duration of the pandemic’s containment measures, that is, the literature indicates that the longer these lockdown policies and other containment measures are in place, the more challenging the recovery process will be since they will particularly affect vulnerable populations, exacerbate pre-existing inequities and generate further food security challenges [ 38 , 72 ].…”

“…Furthermore, Laborde et al [ 73 ] and Kansiime et al [ 70 ] illustrate that the pandemic may influence consumers’ dietary choices in the short-run and cause shifts in consumer demand toward cheaper and less nutritious foods, which threatens to worsen food security outcomes in developing countries. Lastly, a common observation across the reviewed literature addressing the stability of supply and demand for livestock commodities is that measures suggested in response to COVID-19 effects on food security revolved around immediate, direct and short-run interventions, such as the provision of safety nets and food assistance programs [ 71 , 74 ], whereas few articles looked at the long-term impacts of the pandemic on livestock supply chains and their consequences on food security and nutrition outcomes. This could be attributed to the fact that we know very little about the future dynamics of this pandemic, especially that even many of its short-run effects were unprecedented and hard to predict.…”

“…However, intermediaries play vital roles in livestock value chains in transferring livestock products from farm gates to consumers, increasing added value of agrifood commodities by performing grading, packaging and processing activities, and providing marketing services to small producers who would bear high transaction costs if they had to perform these activities [ 80 ]. According to Deepak et al [ 71 ], such negative perception seems to be reflected in agricultural policies and academic publications in relation to developing countries, which widely ignore the traders and intermediaries, creating a ‘missing middle’ in research endeavors in relation to livestock systems and food security in developing countries [ 5 ]. The lack of research that examines the propagation of shocks through livestock supply chains limits our understanding of the true effects of COVID-19 on the livestock systems as a whole and the subsequent effects on food security.…”

Multistakeholder Participation in Disaster Management—The Case of the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The government should recognise the role of local international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) to the pandemic response and encourage timely provision of medical supplies and hygiene kit to individuals. The government should focus on the provision of social support and care to appropriate communities and vulnerable populations, co-ordination of funding activities and volunteers, R&D in life-saving medical innovations and to Test, Test and Test again the people in order to bring COVID-19 under control [ 40 , 45 , 48 , 51 , 56 , 60 , 68 , 69 , 123 , 124 , 125 , 126 , 127 , 128 , 129 , 130 , 133 , 134 , 135 , 136 , 137 , 138 , 139 , 140 , 141 , 142 , 143 , 144 , 145 , 146 , 147 , 148 , 149 , 150 , 151 ].…”

Causal Impacts of Epidemics and Pandemics on Food Supply Chains: A Systematic Review

“…Change in consumer behavior (food consumption patterns) [7,8,11,13,29,36,39,41,50,52,58,60,64,[70][71][72][73]80,81,83,84,89,93,95,96,[101][102][103]105,106,111,114,115,131,132,134,138,142,160,174,187] Demand analysis plans Operational and contingency plans [41,68] Synchronize strategic processes [46] Food surveillance measures should include consumer-eating habits [64] Innovative marketing and planning of the distribution [93] Relaxation of competition laws [187] Adjust payment methods to consumers' demands [93] Information sharing tool...…”