IFPRI Insights: COVID-19 Special Issue (April 16)

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April 16, 2020

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Spotlight on the Coronavirus Outbreak
As the impacts of COVID-19 grow, IFPRI continues to expand its analysis. Blog posts this week include discussions on whether the pandemic will cause another food crisis, potential impacts on diets, and survey results from Ethiopia gauging the effects on vegetable value chains. (Visit Spotlight)

Another Food Crisis?: COVID-19 is disrupting economies around the world, but will it cause a food crisis? IFPRI Director General Jo Swinnen says it depends on whether you are rich or poor, and calls for governments to enact policies and programs that target the immediate needs of their poorest citizens. (Read Blog)

Don’t Let Vegetables Fall off the Plate: What does the pandemic mean for diets? Jody Harris (World Vegetable Center) explains how vegetable production, trade, and consumption are particularly affected by COVID-19 because of their highly seasonal nature, high labor needs, perishability, and complex logistics. (Read Blog)

Vegetable Value Chains in Ethiopia: Seneshaw Tamru (International Growth Centre-Ethiopia) and IFPRI’s Kalle Hirvonen and Bart Minten assess the coronavirus’s impact on Ethiopia’s vegetable value chain, finding that urban consumers are eating less fruits and vegetables while farmers face lower prices and reduced access to inputs. (Read Blog)

>> Read More Blogs

India and the evolution of the disease here will offer the world some really critical insights on how…a fairly high level of undernutrition, especially among children, is going to impact on the susceptibility of the disease as well as the health impacts….Research investments to understand the impact of policy measures on outcomes as critical as malnutrition will be crucial.”- Purnima Menon, Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI (COVID-19: Implications for Global and Country-Level Food Security, Nutrition, and Poverty, April 14, 2020)

Coming Soon: COVID Podcast Episode
Stay tuned for IFPRI’s special COVID podcast episode, scheduled for release next week. The episode features Xiaobo Zhang and Rob Vos talking about how their teams are conducting research in an era of lockdowns and social distancing.

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For further analyses on the impact of COVID-19 on food and nutrition security in South Asia please see the IFPRI South Asia Newsletter : COVID-19 Special Edition)