The impact of COVID-19 on diet quality, food security and nutrition in low and middle income countries: A systematic review of the evidence, Clinical Nutrition,

Cocoa pod husk (CPH) is the main by-product (ca. 70-75% weight of whole fruit) of the cocoa harvest, an important and economic crop in developing countries. It is a rich source of minerals (particularly potassium), fibre (including lignin, cellulose, hemicellulose and pectin) and antioxidants (e.g. phenolic acids). An existing practise is the return of CPH to soil with potential benefits (or disadvantages) for cocoa productivity and soil sustainability that have not been fully characterised. Currently, alternative low-value applications of CPH include its use as animal feed, as a starting material for soap making and activated carbon. Other biotechnological valorisation potentials for CPH and its fractions include the production of bio-fuels and their incorporation in food systems. Physical, chemical or biological pretreatment approaches are needed in order to achieve desirable fractions in a cost-effective and sustainable manner for novel applications in food and non-food sectors.

Highlights Reliance on microfinance for everyday survival will be deepened by the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority of microfinance borrowers globally are women. Servicing microfinance loans will heighten burdens of (un)-paid work that women undertake as part of social reproduction. Over-indebtedness leads to women’s bodily and emotional ‘depletion’. The global public health crisis of COVID-19 represents a major challenge to gender equality and sustainable development.

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COVID-19 has revealed new tensions and exacerbated old fragilities in global food systems, characterised by the systemic socioeconomic reliance on invisible, unpaid and devalued work. We argue that, in the same way environmental concerns have become integral to the Sustainable Food Systems agenda, a social reproduction approach, informed by geographies of care, are essential for a critical analysis and the search for alternatives. By linking analytical concepts to examples from social movements, the commentary calls for a paradigm shift and a new research agenda involving these critical perspectives on resilient and sustainable food systems. RÉSUMÉLa pandémie de COVID-19 a révélé de nouvelles tensions et exacerbé d'anciennes fragilités dans les systèmes alimentaires mondiaux. Celles-ci se caractérisent par une dépendance socio-économique systémique à un travail invisibilisé, non-payé, et dévalué. Des préoccupations environnementales sont devenues partie intégrale du programme de Systèmes Alimentaires Durables. Nous postulons que, similairement, une perspective de reproduction sociale, fondée sur des géographies de care, est essentielle à la formulation d'une analyse critique et à la recherche d'alternatives. En connectant des concepts analytiques aux exemples tirés des mouvements sociaux, ce commentaire appelle à l'adoption d'un changement de paradigme et d'un nouveau programme de recherche qui tiendrait compte de ces perspectives critiques sur des systèmes alimentaires robustes et durables.

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The uptake of innovative technologies and practices in agriculture aimed at the valorisation of natural resources can be scant in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs). Integration of financial viability assessments with farmers and environmental evaluations can help to understand some aspects of the low uptakes of innovations. Using the case study of Cocoa Pod Husk (CPH) valorisation in Indonesia, we provide insights into (i) a choice modelling method to assess the economic viability of CPH valorisation and (ii) an agronomic trial assessing the consequences on soil quality of diverting CPH from its role as a natural fertilizer. The economic viability assessment suggested that farmers require higher levels of compensation than might be expected to collect or process CPH (a small proportion of farmers would undertake all processing activities for 117 GBP/t CPH). The agronomic trial concluded that CPH plays only a minor role in the maintenance of soil phosphorus, calcium and magnesium, but it plays an important role for crop potassium. CPH removal would reduce the partial balances for carbon and nitrogen by 15.6% and 19.6%, respectively. Diversion of CPH from current practices should consider the long-term effects on soil quality, especially because it might create increased reliance on mineral fertilizers.