Impacts of Covid-19 Pandemic on Global Agriculture, Livelihoods and Food Systems

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic created a massive socio-economic panic in all sectors across the world. The agricultural sector is among the most important and crucial part of developing economics in the world. Therefore, the disruption in agriculture and food systems have significant impacts on the livelihood of a large section of people in the world. With this background, this paper performs an inclusive assessment of the effect of Covid-19 on agriculture and food systems in the major part of the impacted countries. A detailed review was made on reports, scientific publications, press releases, and organizational statements etc. This review addresses and highlights the direct impacts of Covid-19 on global food systems, market access for agricultural produce, food and nutritional security, global economy, labour availability and migration, agricultural input-output connectivity, initiatives to avert the crisis and importance of information technology (IT) system in agriculture. Further, this paper suggests mitigation and coping mechanisms that could be useful to improve and sustain the livelihoods of the people.