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Post-COVID-19 Agriculture and Food Security

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Agriculture".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2021) | Viewed by 73321

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Aitazaz A. Farooque

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Department of Engineering School of Sustainable Design Engineering, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, PE C1A4P3, Canada
Interests: precision agriculture; sensing and control systems; deep learning; variable rate technologies; environmental sustainability
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Farhat Abbas

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Guest Editor

Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, PE C1A4P3, Canada
Interests: to calculate, understand and interpret the effects of climate change on water resources for their efficient use for sustainable agriculture through precision water management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

A primary focus of researchers during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic is on how COVID-19 will affect agricultural production and consequently global food security. Agricultural activities comprise dairy, poultry, fisheries, and crop production. All these components of the agricultural industry are areas of interest for various researchers across the globe. Depending upon the nature and specialty of agriculture (e.g., dairy versus poultry versus plant production), different countries will see varying impacts of COVID-19 on their respective economies. It is expected that researchers will provide suggestions to policymakers about handling the post-COVID-19 challenges through efficient and sustainable solutions.

This Special Issue of Sustainability entitled “Post-COVID-19 Agriculture and Food Security” is being produced with the following in mind.

Focus: This Issue focuses on the post-pandemic situations of agricultural production worldwide.
Scope: The Issue’s scope is to publish studies on the impact of COVID-19 measures including lockdown, social distancing, closure of localities (municipalities, cities, countries, contents), and other precautionary approaches against virus spread on the production of dairy, poultry, fish, and plant products.
Purpose: The purpose of this Issue is to provide opportunities to researchers worldwide to contribute to the knowledge base of post-COVID-19 Agriculture and Food Security.

This Issue will blend the existing literature on the management of natural resources, including human, animal, soil, water, and plants, for regional and global food security.

Dr. Aitazaz A. Farooque
Dr. Farhat Abbas
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Sustainable agriculture;
Food security;
Dairy, poultry, and plant production;
Pandemic;
Coronavirus.

Published Papers (9 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 640 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Impacts of COVID-19 on Diverse Farm Systems in Tanzania and South Africa

by Hemant G. Tripathi, Harriet E. Smith, Steven M. Sait, Susannah M. Sallu, Stephen Whitfield, Astrid Jankielsohn, William E. Kunin, Ndumiso Mazibuko and Bonani Nyhodo

Sustainability 2021, 13(17), 9863; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13179863 - 02 Sep 2021

Cited by 24 | Viewed by 5802

Abstract

Emerging information on the interactions between the COVID-19 pandemic and global food systems have highlighted how the pandemic is accentuating food crises across Africa. Less clear, however, are how the impacts differ between farming systems. Drawing on 50 key informant interviews with farmers, village leaders and extension officers in South Africa and Tanzania, we identify the effects of COVID-19 and associated measures to curb the spread of the disease on farming production systems, the coping mechanisms adopted by farmers, and explore their longer-term plans for adaptation. We focus on a diverse range of production systems, from small-scale mixed farming systems in Tanzania to large-scale corporate farms in South Africa. Our findings highlight how COVID-19 restrictions have interrupted the supply chains of agricultural inputs and commodities, increasing the storage time for produce, decreasing income and purchasing power, and reducing labour availability. Farmers’ responses were heterogeneous, with highly diverse small-scale farming systems and those less engaged with international markets least affected by the associated COVID-19 measures. Large-scale farmers were most able to access capital to buffer short-term impacts, whereas smaller-scale farms shared labour, diversified to subsistence produce and sold assets. However, compounded shocks, such as recent extreme climate events, limited the available coping options, particularly for smaller-scale and emerging farmers. The study highlights the need to understand the characteristics of farm systems to better equip and support farmers, particularly in contexts of uncertainty. We propose that policy actions should focus on (i) providing temporary relief and social support and protection to financially vulnerable stakeholders, (ii) job assurance for farmworkers and engaging an alternative workforce in farming, (iii) investing in farming infrastructure, such as storage facilities, digital communication tools and extension services, and (iv) supporting diversified agroecological farming systems. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Post-COVID-19 Agriculture and Food Security)

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11 pages, 747 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Impact of COVID-19 on Urban Agriculture in São Paulo, Brazil

by André Ruoppolo Biazoti, Angélica Campos Nakamura, Gustavo Nagib, Vitória Oliveira Pereira de Souza Leão, Giulia Giacchè and Thais Mauad

Sustainability 2021, 13(11), 6185; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13116185 - 31 May 2021

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4313

Abstract

During the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic, farmers worldwide were greatly affected by disruptions in the food chain. In 2020, São Paulo city experienced most of the effects of the pandemic in Brazil, with 15,587 deaths through December 2020. Here, we describe the impacts of COVID-19 on urban agriculture (UA) in São Paulo from April to August 2020. We analyzed two governmental surveys of 2100 farmers from São Paulo state and 148 from São Paulo city and two qualitative surveys of volunteers from ten community gardens and seven urban farmers. Our data showed that 50% of the farmers were impacted by the pandemic with drops in sales, especially those that depended on intermediaries. Some farmers in the city adapted to novel sales channels, but 22% claimed that obtaining inputs became difficult. No municipal support was provided to UA in São Paulo, and pre-existing issues were exacerbated. Work on community gardens decreased, but no garden permanently closed. Post COVID-19, UA will have the challenge of maintaining local food chains established during the pandemic. Due to the increase in the price of inputs and the lack of technical assistance, governmental efforts should be implemented to support UA. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Post-COVID-19 Agriculture and Food Security)

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22 pages, 8235 KiB

Open AccessArticle

U.S. Potential of Sustainable Backyard Distributed Animal and Plant Protein Production during and after Pandemics

by Theresa K. Meyer, Alexis Pascaris, David Denkenberger and Joshua M. Pearce

Sustainability 2021, 13(9), 5067; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13095067 - 30 Apr 2021

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 7693

Abstract

To safeguard against meat supply shortages during pandemics or other catastrophes, this study analyzed the potential to provide the average household’s entire protein consumption using either soybean production or distributed meat production at the household level in the U.S. with: (1) pasture-fed rabbits, (2) pellet and hay-fed rabbits, or (3) pellet-fed chickens. Only using the average backyard resources, soybean cultivation can provide 80–160% of household protein and 0–50% of a household’s protein needs can be provided by pasture-fed rabbits using only the yard grass as feed. If external supplementation of feed is available, raising 52 chickens while also harvesting the concomitant eggs or alternately 107 grain-fed rabbits can meet 100% of an average household’s protein requirements. These results show that resilience to future pandemics and challenges associated with growing meat demands can be incrementally addressed through backyard distributed protein production. Backyard production of chicken meat, eggs, and rabbit meat reduces the environmental costs of protein due to savings in production, transportation, and refrigeration of meat products and even more so with soybeans. Generally, distributed production of protein was found to be economically competitive with centralized production of meat if distributed labor costs were ignored. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Post-COVID-19 Agriculture and Food Security)

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21 pages, 5876 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The COVID-19 Induced Disruptions across Groundnut Value Chain: Empirical Evidence from South India

by Ravi Nandi, Swamikannu Nedumaran, Aravazhi Selvaraj, Saikat Datta Mazumdar and Shalander Kumar

Sustainability 2021, 13(4), 1707; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13041707 - 05 Feb 2021

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4226

Abstract

We study the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the groundnut value chain and all the actors involved in its value chain in Ananthapuramu district of Andhra Pradesh, a leading groundnut producing state in south India. The results revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic created a double burden on farmers by disrupting farm production on one side and decreased diet diversity on the other. Disruption in farm productions resulted in a decline in household income and increased consumer food prices. The effect on farmers snowballed to other actors in the value chain, and all the actors were affected variably. Availability of storage infrastructure would have saved the farmer’s household income to some extent during the pandemic. Supply of diverse nutrient foods through the existing public distribution system, which mostly provides wheat and rice, might have helped tackle the diet diversity issue amongst farmers. Farmer’s collectives were perceived to reduce the negative impact during natural disasters like the COVID-19 pandemic by helping to organise smallholder farmers, minimise transaction costs and increase their bargaining power. In addition, effective farm extension services, including market information, could have benefited farmers during the crisis. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Post-COVID-19 Agriculture and Food Security)

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Review

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27 pages, 3139 KiB

Open AccessReview

COVID-19 Syndrome: Nexus with Herbivory and Exposure Dynamics for Monitoring Livestock Welfare and Agro-Environment

by Peter Olutope Fayemi, Omolola Esther Fayemi, Luke Oluwaseye Joel and Michael Gbenga Ogungbuyi

Sustainability 2021, 13(22), 12381; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su132212381 - 09 Nov 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2595

Abstract

The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a public health emergency that turns the year 2020–2021 into annus horribilis for millions of people across international boundaries. The interspecies transmission of this zoonotic virus and mutated variants are aided by exposure dynamics of infected aerosols, fomites and intermediate reservoirs. The spike in the first, second and third waves of coronavirus confirms that herd immunity is not yet reached and everyone including livestock is still vulnerable to the infection. Of serious concern are the communitarian nature of agrarians in the livestock sector, aerogenous spread of the virus and attendant cytocidal effect in permissive cells following activation of pathogen recognition receptors, replication cycles, virulent mutations, seasonal spike in infection rates, flurry of reinfections and excess mortalities that can affect animal welfare and food security. As the capacity to either resist or be susceptible to infection is influenced by numerous factors, identifying coronavirus-associated variants and correlating exposure dynamics with viral aerosols, spirometry indices, comorbidities, susceptible blood types, cellular miRNA binding sites and multisystem inflammatory syndrome remains a challenge where the lethal zoonotic infections are prevalent in the livestock industry, being the hub of dairy, fur, meat and egg production. This review provides insights into the complexity of the disease burden and recommends precision smart-farming models for upscaling biosecurity measures and adoption of digitalised technologies (robotic drones) powered by multiparametric sensors and radio modem systems for real-time tracking of infectious strains in the agro-environment and managing the transition into the new-normal realities in the livestock industry. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Post-COVID-19 Agriculture and Food Security)

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18 pages, 870 KiB

Open AccessReview

Food Security and COVID-19: A Systematic Review of the First-Year Experience

by Boglárka Anna Éliás and Attila Jámbor

Sustainability 2021, 13(9), 5294; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13095294 - 10 May 2021

Cited by 32 | Viewed by 7017

Abstract

For decades, global food security has not been able to address the structural problem of economic access to food, resulting in a recent increase in the number of undernourished people from 2014. In addition, the FAO estimates that the number of undernourished people drastically increased by 82–132 million people in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To alleviate this dramatic growth in food insecurity, it is necessary to understand the nature of the increase in the number of malnourished during the pandemic. In order to address this, we gathered and synthesized food-security-related empirical results from the first year of the pandemic in a systematic review. The vast majority (78%) of the 51 included articles reported household food insecurity has increased (access, utilization) and/or disruption to food production (availability) was a result of households having persistently low income and not having an adequate amount of savings. These households could not afford the same quality and/or quantity of food, and a demand shortfall immediately appeared on the producer side. Producers thus had to deal not only with the direct consequences of government measures (disruption in labor flow, lack of demand of the catering sector, etc.) but also with a decline in consumption from low-income households. We conclude that the factor that most negatively affects food security during the COVID-19 pandemic is the same as the deepest structural problem of global food security: low income. Therefore, we argue that there is no need for new global food security objectives, but there is a need for an even stronger emphasis on poverty reduction and raising the wages of low-income households. This structural adjustment is the most fundamental step to recover from the COVID-19 food crises, and to avoid possible future food security crises. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Post-COVID-19 Agriculture and Food Security)

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21 pages, 1295 KiB

Open AccessReview

Urban Horticulture for Food Secure Cities through and beyond COVID-19

by Muhammad Mumtaz Khan, Muhammad Tahir Akram, Rhonda Janke, Rashad Waseem Khan Qadri, Abdullah Mohammed Al-Sadi and Aitazaz A. Farooque

Sustainability 2020, 12(22), 9592; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12229592 - 18 Nov 2020

Cited by 61 | Viewed by 15521

Abstract

Sufficient production, consistent food supply, and environmental protection in urban +settings are major global concerns for future sustainable cities. Currently, sustainable food supply is under intense pressure due to exponential population growth, expanding urban dwellings, climate change, and limited natural resources. The recent novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic crisis has impacted sustainable fresh food supply, and has disrupted the food supply chain and prices significantly. Under these circumstances, urban horticulture and crop cultivation have emerged as potential ways to expand to new locations through urban green infrastructure. Therefore, the objective of this study is to review the salient features of contemporary urban horticulture, in addition to illustrating traditional and innovative developments occurring in urban environments. Current urban cropping systems, such as home gardening, community gardens, edible landscape, and indoor planting systems, can be enhanced with new techniques, such as vertical gardening, hydroponics, aeroponics, aquaponics, and rooftop gardening. These modern techniques are ecofriendly, energy- saving, and promise food security through steady supplies of fresh fruits and vegetables to urban neighborhoods. There is a need, in this modern era, to integrate information technology tools in urban horticulture, which could help in maintaining consistent food supply during (and after) a pandemic, as well as make agriculture more sustainable. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Post-COVID-19 Agriculture and Food Security)

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28 pages, 2806 KiB

Open AccessReview

Impact of the SARS-CoV-2 on the Italian Agri-Food Sector: An Analysis of the Quarter of Pandemic Lockdown and Clues for a Socio-Economic and Territorial Restart

by Gianni Barcaccia, Vincenzo D’Agostino, Alessandro Zotti and Bruno Cozzi

Sustainability 2020, 12(14), 5651; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12145651 - 14 Jul 2020

Cited by 67 | Viewed by 8257

Abstract

The recent outbreak of a new Coronavirus has developed into a global pandemic with about 10.5 million reported cases and over 500,000 deaths worldwide. Our prospective paper reports an updated analysis of the impact that this pandemic had on the Italian agri-food sector during the national lockdown and discusses why and how this unprecedented economic crisis could be a turning point to deal with the overall sustainability of food and agricultural systems in the frame of the forthcoming European Green Deal. Its introductory part includes a wide-ranging examination of the first quarter of pandemic emergency, with a specific focus on the primary production, to be understood as agriculture (i.e., crops and livestock, and their food products), fisheries, and forestry. The effect on the typical food and wine exports, and the local environment tourism segments is also taken into account in this analysis, because of their old and deep roots into the cultural and historical heritage of the country. The subsequent part of the paper is centered on strategic lines and research networks for an efficient socio-economic and territorial restart, and a faster transition to sustainability in the frame of a circular bio-economy. Particular emphasis is given to the urgent need of investments in research and development concerning agriculture, in terms of not only a fruitful penetration of the agro-tech for a next-generation agri-food era, but also a deeper attention to the natural and environmental resources, including forestry. As for the rest of Europe, Italy demands actions to expand knowledge and strengthen research applied to technology transfer for innovation activities aimed at providing solutions for a climate neutral and resilient society, in reference to primary production to ensure food security and nutrition quality. Our expectation is that science and culture return to play a central role in national society, as their main actors are capable of making a pivotal contribution to renew and restart the whole primary sector and agri-food industry, addressing also social and environmental issues, and so accelerating the transition to sustainability. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Post-COVID-19 Agriculture and Food Security)

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Other

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4 pages, 187 KiB

Open AccessOpinion

Food First: COVID-19 Outbreak and Cities Lockdown a Booster for a Wider Vision on Urban Agriculture

by Giuseppe Pulighe and Flavio Lupia

Sustainability 2020, 12(12), 5012; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12125012 - 19 Jun 2020

Cited by 145 | Viewed by 14591

Abstract

The COVID-19 emergency has revealed the extreme fragility of large cities to unexpected complex global risks and crises. City lockdown has led to increasing awareness of the vital importance of food availability for citizens. The combined effect of border closure and movement restrictions increased food losses and export costs, especially for vegetables and perishable goods exposing non-self-sufficient countries. We claim the idea that urban agriculture in developed countries should be fostered with emerging growing practices and edible green infrastructures, such as vertical farming, hydroponics, aeroponic, aquaponic, and rooftop greenhouses. Notwithstanding the limitations of traditional urban farming activities, innovative and disruptive solutions and short food supply chains of fresh agricultural products might play a positive role in lessening uncertainties from global systemic risks. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Post-COVID-19 Agriculture and Food Security)

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