Because of Corona ... the global food crisis is worsening and the number of hungry people will rise

Although levels of malnutrition were very high before the Corona crisis (Covid-19), the numbers of those who suffer from hunger are expected to increase further during the year 2020. 

In an article published by the French newspaper "Le Monde", the writer Mathilde Gerard said that the victims of the Covid-19 crisis are the potato farmers in Guinea, whose crops rot before their eyes on farms and their income is declining. 

Many poor families in Dhaka, Bangladesh, have lost their jobs, and have only had some supplies to make a living for a few days, and university students in the French municipality of Villeneuve-d'Ascq have found themselves deprived of the university restaurant and their part-time jobs.

Even Geneva!
In all the countries affected by the Corona pandemic, from the richest to the poorest of the poor, the base of malnutrition has extended to new social groups, and the streets of Geneva - which is one of the wealthiest capitals in the world - have seen long lines of people wanting to get food. 

As a result, the crisis could starve tens of millions of people, and according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates, 14.4 million will join the ranks of the undernourished in the event of a global recession by 2%, and the number will rise to 38.2 million if it reaches The contraction is 5%, and their number will reach 80.3 million if the contraction reaches 10%. 

Those who will suffer from malnutrition in the coming period will be added to the 820 million who are already suffering from hunger, and accordingly the goal of eliminating hunger by 2030 which the international community has set for itself appears to be unachievable, according to the author. 

The author says the Global Nutrition Report reminds us that the figures were very high at the beginning of the year, even before the Covid-19 outbreak on all continents.  

Malnutrition rates continue to reach unacceptable levels globally, and the report's authors say that while some improvements have been observed in the provision of milk to infants, progress remains very slow in achieving nutrition goals, as matters of concern include the stability of the proportion of women of Childbearing women with anemia at 32.8%, delayed growth that affects 21.9% of children under five, and wasting that 7.3% of them suffer. 

The fragility of the food
quarantine systems imposed on many countries threatens to exacerbate these indicators, despite the availability of agricultural crops this year, according to the author.

"This crisis is primarily a demand crisis, and this does not mean that the supply base is stable, but at least there is no downturn or a significant rise in prices," the author quoted a researcher at the French Agency for Agricultural Research and International Cooperation for Development, Nicholas Brecas, as saying. 

As for those responsible for defending the Catholic Committee against Hunger and for Development, Valentin Brockard said, "At the present time, there is no crisis in agricultural production, but a crisis in obtaining food, because the food markets are closed, and people do not have the money."

Valentin believes that the deficiencies experienced by the food systems have become clear in recent weeks, which are dependence on foreign agricultural labor, the excessive allocation of certain areas to monoculture, and the dependence on imports and exports, and the situation of potato producers in Guinea highlights the difficulties they face in Stockpile disposal in times of epidemic due to lack of buyers and markets.

"When you lose approximately 85% of your crop, you will not find what you eat, and you can no longer send your children to school," the writer quoted Musa Barra Diallo, head of the Fota Gallon Peasant Union (NEE) with about 35,000 members. 

Besides, about 69% of peasants are women whose husbands work abroad or widows, and the disaster includes many parties, whether they are producers, porters, vendors, compost collectors or dead leaves, which indicates the zigzag that the entire local economy takes. 

According to Diallo, to better prepare for the future, Fouta Gallon will have to start adopting more diversified production in the area of ​​ecological agriculture, which he hopes will be more crisis-resistant. 

Fear of hunger more than the virus The
author mentioned that rural malnutrition, which is less visible than urban malnutrition, is a special threat. 

"Small-scale producers will use survival strategies that will not suit them in the long run. For example, breeders will consume the productive cows they raise, which could endanger the herds of next year," says Valentin Brockard. 

In the big cities of the countries of the South, it is the closure of the economy - especially the informal sectors - that makes the situation turbulent.

In Dhaka - which is home to more than twenty million people, including seven million in slums - there are more fears of hunger than the virus, according to the author.  

In the long term, the effects of malnutrition are devastating, and according to the former Minister of Agriculture of the Netherlands and coordinator of the Movement to Promote Nutrition Gerda Wehrberg, every drop in GDP leads to an increase of 0.7 million children with developmental delays.   

Managing the state of emergency
The author has stated that hunger will not be the only nutritional consequence of the epidemic, but stagnation will have a lasting impact on diets of the most vulnerable and vulnerable, which raises fears of an increase in food-related diseases.

Here, Valentin Brockard says, "People will change their purchases from food to less expensive, less diversified food. There is a risk of increased rates of undernutrition, deficiency of vitamins and micronutrients." 

The current food crisis requires a global and coordinated response, and Nicholas Brecas says the challenge will not be to hide long-term goals. “We will not escape from emergency management, and the explosion in demand for food aid is an obvious difficulty,” he says.

 He continues that there is concern that ignoring environmental emergencies will occur, indicating that there is already strong pressure from economic actors to ease their restrictions in this area.