A Framework for Addressing the Twin Challenges of COVID-19 and Climate Change for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security in South Asia

Golam Rasul

doi:10.3389/fsufs.2021.679037

Abstract

Climate change has begun to ravage agriculture and threaten food security in many parts of the world. The novel coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has further disrupted agricultural activities and supply chains and has become a serious threat for public health. Like in many developing countries, South Asian farmers are now facing the double challenge of addressing the impacts of a changing climate and managing the disruptions caused by COVID-19. Despite growing concern, there is limited understanding of how climate change, public health, and COVID-19 interact, and of the possible pathways to achieving a climate-friendly recovery from COVID-19 to achieve food and nutrition security. In view of this, this paper explores the multifaceted challenges that farmers are now facing in South Asia due to climate change and the disruption caused by COVID-19 from the agricultural and food security lens. The analysis reveals that the complex interactions of COVID-19 and climate change have impacted all dimensions of food security. These interlinkages demand an integrated approach in dealing with food, public health, and climate change to harness synergies and minimize trade-offs between food production, public health, and climate mitigation. I present a framework to address the immediate challenge of COVID-19 and the longer-term challenge of anthropogenic climate change. Key elements of the framework include the strengthening health sector response capacities, strengthening of local and regional food systems, making agriculture resilient to pandemics, adopting flexible and smart approaches—including the implementation of climate-smart agricultural interventions on different scales, promotion of appropriate research and innovation, and the integration of short-term support to address the challenges of COVID-19 to build long-term productivity, and resilience of food systems by investing on natural capital. This framework would enable policy makers to choose the appropriate policy responses at different scales, to address these twin challenges of COVID-19 and climate change.

Highlights

Agriculture and food security are connected with both climate change and COVID-19 as healthy food and healthy environment are critical for dealing with COVID-19
This paper examines the twin challenges that farmers in South Asia are facing in addressing the effects of climate change while dealing with the disruptions caused by COVID-19
As the main objective of this research is to develop a framework to tackle the twin challenges of COVID-19 and climate change, this study has been guided by two broad research questions: (a) What policy and institutional mechanisms are needed to tackle the twin challenges of COVID-19 and climate change to make agriculture and food security public health friendly? (b) Can a framework be developed to address these twin challenges? While literature on climate change and agriculture and food security has grown globally, the understanding of the link between COVID19, climate change, food security, and public health is limited, in South Asia (Rasul, 2021)

Summary

Introduction

Agriculture and food security are connected with both climate change and COVID-19 as healthy food and healthy environment are critical for dealing with COVID-19. South Asia is considered as one of the highly vulnerable regions in the world to climate change (Bandara and Cai, 2014). South Asian farmers have to feed over 20% of the global population with just 5% of the world’s agricultural land (FAO, 2009; Rasul, 2021). Countries in this region faced multiple challenges of food insecurity and underdeveloped public health even before the COVID-19 pandemic. About 300 million people are still severely food insecure in South Asia (FAO, 2019) and ∼36% of the children below 5 years of age in the region are stunted due to malnutrition, and 16% are acutely malnourished. South Asia accounts for about 40% of the world’s stunted children (FAO, 2019)

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