Covid-19 Implications For Farmers, African Agriculture And Food Security

How will Africa ensure food security for its millions of poor citizens and smallholder farmers?

- Valentine Eleta

As the cropping season commences with the coming of the rains in most parts of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), COVID-19 pandemic sweeping across the world with the continent unfortunately not being left out - raises questions about food security for African countries.

While the food and agricultural sector should ordinarily be less affected than other sectors (since food is a basic need, with more or less inelastic demand), labour shortages due to viral infection, transport interruptions, quarantine measures limiting access to markets and supply chain disruptions resulting in food losses and wastage could affect supply.

African Farmers face a difficult year ahead as unprecedented quarantine measures to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus threaten to disrupt the food supply chains of most countries, leaving the farmers in limbo. Most countries have already initiated travel bans, to limit the number of people coming in from other regions in an attempt to curb the spread of the virus, but in addition to these measures, many countries are beginning to impose strict restrictions on the movement of people within the country; and farmers, are among the many groups adversely affected by these restrictions.