Impacts COVID-19 pandemic Diseases on Ethiopian Agriculture, Food Systems, Industries, and Mitigation and Adaptation Strategy

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is a recent outbreak in almost all parts of the world including Ethiopia influencing the socio-economy of people and mainly threatening the agriculture and food security of the least developed countries. The current desk review and opinion synthesis by a multi-disciplinary team of experts from Haramaya University aimed at assessing the probable impact of the virus on the Ethiopian agriculture and food security and suggesting the possible mitigation and adaptation strategies to all responsible. Experts’ opinion and desk review of existing information were employed for the analysis and conclusions drawn, due to the difficulty of data generation at this time of movement restriction and poor database availability on websites of relevant institutions. Accordingly, the information gathered were synthesised and described following the major stages of food supply chains as production, handling and storage, processing and packaging, distribution and marketing, and consumption are key messages drawn from the overall assessment.