Food security and safety concerns in animal production and public health issues in Africa: A perspective of COVID-19 pandemic era

Abstract

The impact of COVID-19 on food security can best be understood from the downturn on agricultural and other related economic activities which were almost brought to a total halt during the pandemic. The restriction of movement/lockdown policy instituted by various governments heavily affected local and national food production as farmers could not go to their farmlands. More so, there was price gouging on raw food items as local farmers were reducing cultivation and harvest because of their safety. The lockdown also affected the transportation of food products from farms and local companies to the market and across inter-state/province borders. Additionally, many human infections traceable to disease outbreak from animal origin suggest a great risk of exposure to infectious agents by live animal farmers. In combating this menace, local food production needs to be encouraged more, while measures should be put in place to facilitate farmer's participation in government regulations on enforcing biosecurity, health standards, disease monitoring, and surveillance practices.

COVID-19, Livestock Systems and Food Security in Developing Countries: A Systematic Review of an Emerging Literature

“…In connection with these effects, Quayson et al [ 39 ] highlight that small livestock producers in developing economies faced significant obstacles to access market information and extension services during the pandemic, which adversely affected their productivity and farm performance. Ejeromedoghene et al [ 40 ] indicate that the inability of livestock producers to conduct rearing activities freely has affected both the welfare of farm animals and the livelihood of chain actors. Swinnen and McDermott [ 41 ] indicate that border restrictions on travel were especially costly for livestock producers who practice transhumance.…”

“…Post-production, distribution and marketing activities: The reviewed evidence shows that the pandemic reduced access of livestock producers to domestic markets [40,44]. In particular, restrictions on public transport constrained farmers' access to input markets and output markets, as many of them transport inputs to the farm and production to markets by public transportation means [23].…”

“…Articles cited in the previous sub-section of this paper belong mainly to these two phases of resilience, where the focus has been on how livestock systems were affected by-and responded to the COVID-19-induced risks, such as decreased farm productivity, reduced access to consumer and input markets, shortage of farm labor, reduced consumers' purchasing power and vulnerability of market prices, to cite a few [1,22,35,40,58]. Based on the investigation of these risks and their effects, the reviewed literature turns then to focus on immediate and short-run countermeasures implemented mainly by governments and actors within livestock supply chains to mitigate the impact of the pandemic and restore the ability of livestock systems to return to their original state and resume livestock activities along the supply chain [40,[59][60][61]. In contrast, a smaller subset of the reviewed literature focused on action taken by the supply chain actors to 'plan' (n = 7) or to 'adapt' (n = 13) livestock systems to reduce their vulnerability, improve their learning from the pandemic and enhance their resilience to observed and anticipated pandemics and disasters.…”

“…In the next paragraphs, we briefly summarize the main issues that the surveyed literature addressed in relation to each of the four dimensions of food security. With regard to availability of livestock commodities, the literature attributes food insecurity to inadequacy of on-farm disease surveillance, shortage of feed ingredients and veterinary medications, closure of processing facilities, restrictions on trade of livestock inputs and commodities, increased costs for feeds and medication, and shortage of farm labor [22,35,38,40]. Collectively, these effects adversely influenced livestock production and productively and decreased availability of livestock-source foods in various markets.…”

Maintaining Essential Nutrition Services to Underfive Children in Yemen: A Programmatic Adaptation Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…A study by Francis and Pegg (2020) [41] in the humanitarian setting of the Niger Delta described an adaptation of the school nutrition program, and its transformation into socially distanced feeding programs, after the forced schools' closure amidst the pandemic. Additional examples of published programmatic adaptations in the context of COVID-19 have been limited to the adaptation of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) services in resource-constrained settings during the COVID-19 pandemic [42], adaptations of abdominal transplant programs and patient care practice habits [43], or adaptation in the local farming and animal production sectors to foster food security [44]. The process of adaptation of the nutrition program in Yemen, as described in this paper may, therefore, serve as a prototype for other countries and humanitarian settings to initiate and implement context-specific program adaptations.…”