Effects of COVID-19 on the Agricultural Sector

The COVID-19 pandemic is a global crisis which is already affecting the food and agriculture sector. Prompt measures to ensure that food supply chains are kept alive, domestically and internationally, to mitigate the risk of large shocks that would have a considerable impact on everybody, especially on the poor and the most vulnerable. Due to COVID-19, value chain disruptions are expected to trigger sudden price changes and increase in price volatility.

The pandemic will also likely raise production costs amid a fall in food commodity prices, increasing the vulnerability of farm incomes. The agriculture sector in most countries is also exposed to labour shortages, and in labour intensive low-income countries, where subsistence farming systems prevail, labour shortages would also have repercussions for food security.