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Fit and Munter.de (Germany) wrote an article on the spread of the coronavirus in poor countries in Africa and Asia is not just a health hazard. Sufficient food can no longer be grown and supply chains are interrupted. There is a risk of supply shortages and consequently hunger. Emeritus Research Fellow Shenggen Fan writes in his blog post, Preventing global food […]

The Hindu Business Line published an op-ed by IFPRI Researchers N Chandra Sekhara Rao and Anjani Kumar on how countries are beginning to see the disruptions in the food value chains.   Urban areas are experiencing panic buying. Food chain disruptions will be felt with a lag as production gets affected with altering consumption patterns and lowered demand due to infrequent grocery shopping, […]

El Diario (Spain) published an article on food prices and possible disruptions due to COVID-19. Senior Research Fellow David Laborde commented that for now there have been few disruptions (the limitation of Vietnam’s rice exports or the operational difficulties in markets such as fish and fruit or vegetable markets). 

Radio Free Asia (Korea) reported on the COVID-19 emergency and the impact on food security. Senior Research Fellow Joseph Glauber stated that “free exports to Asia were limited due to short export restrictions in each country, and the world’s grain inventory was richer than in the past food crisis of 2007-2008. It is more important that other countries do not chain export restrictions.” 

Omvarlden (Sweden) published an article on the risk of food shortages when trade stops due to the COVID-19 health crisis. The article quoted the IFPRI blog, COVID-19: Trade restrictions are worst possible response to safeguard food security by Senior Research Fellows Joseph Glauber, David Laborde, Will Martin, and Division Director Rob Vos, stating there is no shortage of food in the world and there are larger stocks of staple […]

Yahoo India published an op-ed by Mamata Pradhan and Senior Research Fellow Devesh Roy on the next economic steps India should take to recover from the COVID-19 health crisis. Though many regions are creating rationing packages and other safety nets, the authors suggest that only when the markets are running, the safety nets would be useful. (Reach 4.8M). Republished in Financial Express.

Financial Express (India) published an op-ed by IFPRI researchers Avinash Kishore and Manavi Gupta who state that while rural India is poorer than its urban counterpart, in the COVID-19 crisis, it is the urban poor who are far more vulnerable with less social and government support. India’s 21-day lockdown is a significantly bigger shock to the economy and will hurt urban families far more.

Global Edition – China Daily published an op-ed by Emeritus Senior Fellow Shenggen Fan. The op-ed encourages people and communities not to panic during the COVID-19 pandemic. Panic hurts the poor and it is with global collaboration by the UN as well as international organizations, institutions, multilateral development banks, donors and civil society that will help solve food insecurity in […]

Global Open Data reported on the impact of COVID-19 on poverty. According to IFPRI, the global poverty is likely to rise as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The preliminary results from the study show that overall, the world economic growth rate has already fallen 1%, compared to a similar period in the previous year. This would translate to an increase […]

Bonn Sustainability Portal reported on the fight against coronavirus and how it affects global food supply? Simulations by IFPRI show the possible effects of a global economic downturn on poverty and food insecurity. The numbers are alarming if the crisis persists for an extended period. The 1% decline in global growth is associated with a 2% increase in poverty, […]