State of food and agriculture in the Asia and Pacific region, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic

FAO

State of food and agriculture in the Asia and Pacific region, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic

Thirty-sixth Session of the FAO Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific (APRC 36)

Year of publication 2022

Place of publication Bangkok, Thailand ;

Pages 18

Author FAO

Publisher FAO ;

Product type Meeting

Edition 1

Full item page

Synopsis (short abstract) FAO has been intensively working on the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Programme, to reach a larger share of rural populations and to relaunch economic activities. In addition to response, the Programme is also working on building back better and stronger towards transforming agrifood systems across all our Four Betters, with an emphasis on its seven priority areas of work as well as focus on science and innovation, climate change, legal frameworks and scaling up existing programmes. This paper examines the situation in Asia and the Pacific during the COVID-19 pandemic situation in 2020 and 2021. It reviews the health, economic, livelihood, and food security impacts both regionally and at the country level for specific groups such as the poor and the most vulnerable segments of the population. Given the broad socio-economic reach of the pandemic, the Report examines the macro-economic impacts and the effects on employment and income, migration and trade, economic growth and government fiscal space, food security and nutrition, poverty, and hunger. The Report also reviews the various government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic covering the health crisis, macro economy, unemployment, food supply disruptions, food demand shocks arising from the pandemic lockdowns, reduced mobility, restrictions on international travel, and internal and cross border migration. These responses include government investments in health services; expansion of social protection measures to new groups and beneficiaries; measures to ensure continued trade in critical food and health products, and financial support measures to minimize job losses and reduce food supply chain disruptions. It also covers new policies and investment priorities, including digital technologies, to rebuild agrifood systems that are resilient, inclusive and green.

Statutory body / Meeting title FAO Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific (APRC)

Meeting symbol APRC/22/2

Meeting Session Number Sess. 36

Meeting date 8 - 11 March 2022

Meeting location Dhaka, Bangladesh

Language English

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Joint statement on nutrition in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in Asia and the Pacific 2020

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Book (stand-alone)

COVID-19 pandemic impacts on Asia and the Pacific
A regional review of socioeconomic, agrifood and nutrition impacts and policy responses
2022

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The COVID-19 health crisis has turned into a global economic crisis, putting at risk the health, jobs and incomes of millions of people across the world. The pandemic is becoming persistent and seemingly slow to eradicate, with medium and long-term consequences affecting the trajectories of the SDG (Sustainable Development Goal) targets across the countries. Better understanding of the implications of COVID-19 containment these measures for food systems, food insecurity and malnutrition is vital to prevent this global health crisis from becoming a food crisis and to rebuilt resilient food systems. The regional review presented in this report is broad-based but provisional since we are still dealing with an active pandemic having just moved past the fourth wave (dominated by Delta variant) and now facing a new variant, Omicron (whose real impact is still under review). As we approach 2022, the world is learning to live with COVID-19 and its variants for longer than initially believed. So the numbers related to COVID-19 infections and vaccination rates are only provisional and reflect the situation as of the time of writing.
Book (series)
Asia and the Pacific – Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2021
Statistics and trends
2021

Also available in:

Chinese

This most recent report on the state of food security and nutrition in Asia and the Pacific tells a grim story. An estimated 375.8 million people in the region faced hunger in 2020, which is nearly 54 million more people than in 2019. In this region alone, more than 1.1 billion people did not have access to adequate food in 2020 – an increase of almost 150 million people in just one year. The high cost of a healthy diet and persistently high levels of poverty and income inequality continue to hold healthy diets out of reach for 1.8 billion people in this region.The pre-existing food security and nutrition situation in Asia and the Pacific in 2019 was already quite discouraging. Progress had stalled in reducing the number of undernourished, and the prevalence of certain nutritional indicators, such as stunting in children under five years of age, was much too high. Since then, the situation has worsened. While it is not yet possible to fully quantify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, clearly it has had a serious impact across the region.