Agricultural labor, COVID-19, and potential implications for food security and air quality in the breadbasket of India

Balwinder-Singh,; Shirsath, Paresh B.; Jat, M.L.; McDonald, Andrew J.; Srivastava, Amit K.; Craufurd, Peter; Rana, D.S.; Singh, Aditya; Chaudhari, S. K.; Sharma, Parbodh Chander; Singh, Rajbir; Jat, H.S.; Sidhu, H.S.; Gérard, Bruno; Braun, Hans J.

doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2020.102954

Cited by 62 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Our study shows the effectiveness of a wide variety of policies and programmes implemented during the crisis, including enhanced food security arrangements, food distribution, cash payments, infrastructure funds, employment programmes, infrastructure funds, employment programmes including youth (section 5.1), cast within a productivityresilience-inclusiveness framework to be implemented across sectors (OECD, 2021) and empowered by agricultural and food assessment tools such as the SRIAF (section 5.3; Dixon et al, 2020a). Other studies confirm our findings (Balwinder-Singh, 2020;DA-AFID, 2020;Pan et al, 2020).…”

Section: Recovery and Development Policiessupporting

confidence: 89%

“…Hence, the Editors of Agricultural Systems invited rapid assessments of the initial effects of COVID-19 in different continents, including the Asia region (Stephens et al, 2020). As the pandemic spread in Asia, various local surveys and modelling studies had been implemented in some countries in Asia (e.g., Amjath-Babu et al, 2020;Balwinder-Singh Shirsath et al, 2020;FAO, 2020c;FAO, 2020d;FAO, 2020e;FAO, 2020f;Huang, 2020). Nevertheless, a major gap remained in knowledge about the nature and magnitude of COVID-19 effects on agrifood systems at the regional scale in rural Asia; we designed this study to address this gap.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Response and resilience of Asian agrifood systems to COVID-19: An assessment across twenty-five countries and four regional farming and food systems

Dixon

Weerahewa

Hellin

et al. 2021

Agricultural Systems

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This regional synthesis addresses a major gap in knowledge about the effects of COVID-19 on agriculture and food across Asia • Key informants from 20 Asian countries assessed early direct and indirect effects on each of four major regional farming and food systems • The analysis showed Asian farming and food systems were moderately resilient to the pandemic, especially the hill mixed system • System resilience, food and labour markets, and farm and food chain economic benefits are key priorities for recovery policies and programmes • This study highlights COVID-19 effects and informs recovery policies and precautionary strategies against future pandemics in Asia and globally

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Section: Recovery and Development Policiessupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Response and resilience of Asian agrifood systems to COVID-19: An assessment across twenty-five countries and four regional farming and food systems

Dixon

Weerahewa

Hellin

et al. 2021

Agricultural Systems

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“…This manifested in both a concern from the workers and host communities not wanting outsiders to join them. This led to a dramatic shortfall in labour during the harvesting of winter crops [10]. As a result, in many cases, crop harvesting was delayed.…”

Section: Constraints Arising From the Covid-19 Pandemicmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pandemic or Environmental Socio-Economic Stressors Which Have Greater Impact on Food Security in the Barishal Division of Bangladesh: Initial Perspectives from Agricultural Officers and Farmers

et al. 2021

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The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent protectionary lockdowns have had a dramatic impact on agricultural production globally. Barishal division is the ‘grain-basket’ of Bangladesh and a main rice cultivation centre within the country. This study captures perspectives on the environmental socioeconomic stressors impacting primary production in the coastal region of Barishal, and the impact of the first wave of the global pandemic. In our methodology, a cross-sectional survey is carried out amongst agriculture officers and farmers focusing on land management practices, environmental stressors, and the consequences of the pandemic on winter crop harvests and wet season production. A total number of 234 people participated, of which 31 were agriculture officers and 203 were farmers. Government officers completed an online questionnaire, while farmer responses were collected through Focus Group Discussion. The results show that despite the lockdown, 76% of responders claimed that they had harvested more than 80% of the cultivated winter rice. Other crops, such as fruits and vegetables, were less successfully returned. Despite food production pressures, land capacity was not fully utilised, with a significant/notable proportion of fields left fallow, principally due to periodic flooding events that sufferer concurrently from soil organic matter depletion. Upazila, not severely waterlogged, had salinity problems to contend with. While transportation restrictions and labour shortages were key constraints arising from the impact of COVID-19 on both agricultural production and post harvesting (processing, distribution, and utilisation). Current storage facilities for perishable produce, such as fruit, were found to be lacking, which further compounded access to such food items. The COVID-19 pandemic shocked agricultural productivity and food supply within the Barishal division. However, despite managing to return a successful rice harvest during the lockdown, it was found that the pre-existing environmental stressors arising from cyclones and flooding continued to be the primary threat to agriculture, even during a global pandemic. Our findings have been used to inform management options to increase resilience in the region.

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“…Relevant research is mainly focused on the food supply chain [ 6 ], nutrition, and health [ 7 , 8 ]. Geographically, research is mainly performed for low-income food-deficit countries or countries with large food production, such as the countries in sub-Saharan Africa [ 9 ], India [ 10 ]. A report from the World Bank also provided special attention to the impact of the reduction in food production in food-exporting countries on the global food supply [ 11 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risk of Global External Cereals Supply under the Background of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Based on the Perspective of Trade Network

Zhang

Yang

Zhu

et al. 2021

Foods

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International food trade is an integral part of the food system, and the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fragility of external food supplies. Based on the perspective of cereals trade networks (CTN), the pandemic risk is combined with the trade intensity between countries, and an assessment model of cereals external supply risk is constructed that includes external dependence index (EDI), import concentration, and risk of COVID-19 from import countries index (RICI). The results show that: (1) the global main CTN have typical scale-free characteristics, and seven communities are detected under the influence of the core countries; (2) about 60%, 50%, and 70% of countries face risks of medium and above (high and very high) external dependence, concentration of imports, and COVID-19 in the country of origin, respectively. Under the influence of the pandemic, the risk of global external cereal supply index (RECSI) has increased by 65%, and the USA-CAN communities show the highest risk index; (3) the countries with a very high risk are mainly the Pacific island countries and the Latin American and African countries. In addition, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, and 80% of the net food-importing developing countries are at high or very high RECSI levels. Approximately 50% of countries belong to the compound risk type, and many export countries belong to the RICI risk type; (4) global external food supply is subjected to multiple potential threats such as trade interruption, “price crisis”, and “payment dilemma”. The geographical proximity of community members and the geographical proximity of the pandemic risk is superimposed, increasing the regional risk of external food supply; and (5) this study confirms that the food-exporting countries should avoid the adoption of food export restriction measures and can prevent potential external supply risks from the dimensions of maintaining global food liquidity and promoting diversification of import sources. We believe that our assessment model of cereals external supply risk comprises a useful method for investigations regarding the international CTN or global food crisis under the background of the pandemic.

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Agricultural labor, COVID-19, and potential implications for food security and air quality in the breadbasket of India

Cited by 62 publications

References 31 publications

Response and resilience of Asian agrifood systems to COVID-19: An assessment across twenty-five countries and four regional farming and food systems

Response and resilience of Asian agrifood systems to COVID-19: An assessment across twenty-five countries and four regional farming and food systems

Pandemic or Environmental Socio-Economic Stressors Which Have Greater Impact on Food Security in the Barishal Division of Bangladesh: Initial Perspectives from Agricultural Officers and Farmers

Risk of Global External Cereals Supply under the Background of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Based on the Perspective of Trade Network

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