The impact of food security disruption due to the Covid-19 pandemic on tribal people in India

The COVID pandemic and subsequent lockdown has disrupted food supplies across large parts of India, where even prior to the pandemic, food insecurity and malnutrition were widely prevalent. Tribal populations in southern Rajasthan, India, live in extreme scarcity, rely mainly on outward migration for sustenance, and have been significantly affected by the pandemic. In this study, we assess the availability of foodstuffs at the household level and community experiences about satiety and hunger during lockdown. We conducted a rapid assessment of food security in rural southern Rajasthan, India, using a structured questionnaire. Trained interviewers conducted telephonic interviews using KoBoToolbox, an open-source tool. A total of 211 respondents including community volunteers, family members of tuberculosis patients and malnourished children, pregnant women, and influential members in the villages participated in the study. A cereal was reported to be present by 97% of the respondents, two-thirds had pulses, and nearly half had milk. The amount of cereals available was adequate for about 5 months and that of pulses, oil/ ghee, and sugar for about 1 to 2 weeks. Two-thirds of the respondents reported that food in their households was sometimes not sufficient for the amount they wanted to eat, and 97% of these mentioned not having money to buy food as the reason for not having sufficient food. This study highlights widespread food insecurity among tribal communities in southern Rajasthan, and the scenario is likely to be similar in other tribal migration dependent areas of the country.

The World Food Organization (FAO) has warned of a potential food crisis during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic. In response to this problem, the Indonesian government has implemented various strategies to maintain food security in order to avoid a food crisis. Even though the national food stock is still considered safe, anticipation needs to be done for maintaining food security. Efforts have been made in the form of increasing food security at the household, local, and national levels. At the household level, the movement of homestead land use in villages with integrated farming and urban areas with urban farming has helped to increase food security. At the local level, local food development movements such as maize, cassava, sago, and tubers were carried out to reduce dependence on food supplies from other areas that were disrupted by distribution during the Covid-19 pandemic. At the national level, the government continues to develop food security through the development of Food Estate in Kalimantan and Sumatra. The strategy for achieving food security is carried out through massive short-, medium- and long-term movements. The impact of Covid-19 is not only on food security but also on community innovation and creations.

Comparing Food Security Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Considerations When Choosing Measures

Tribal or indigenous communities have unique health behaviors, challenges, and inequities that nationally representative surveys cannot document. Odisha has one of India's largest and most diverse tribal populations, constituting more than a fifth of the state. State and tribe-specific health data generation is recommended in India's national roadmap of tribal health. The Odisha tribal family health survey (OTFHS) aims to describe and compare the health status of tribal communities in the state of Odisha and to estimate the prevalence of key maternal-child health indicators and chronic diseases. This paper summarizes the methodology, protocols, and tools used in this survey. This is a population-based cross-sectional survey with a multistage random sampling design in 13 (tribal sub-plan areas) districts of Odisha, India. We will include participants of all age groups and gender who belong to tribal communities. The sample size was calculated for each tribe and aggregated to 40,921, which will be collected from 10,230 households spread over 341 clusters. The survey data will be collected electronically in modules consisting of Village, Household, and Individual level questionnaires. The age-group-specific questionnaires were adapted from other national family health surveys with added constructs related to specific health issues of tribal communities, including-critical indicators related to infectious and non-communicable diseases, multimorbidity, nutrition, healthcare-seeking behavior, self-rated health, psycho-social status, maternal and child health and geriatric health. A battery of laboratory investigations will be conducted at the household level and the central laboratory. The tests include liver function tests, kidney function tests, lipid profile, iron profile, and seroprevalence of scrub typhus and hepatitis infections. The datasets from household questionnaires, field measurements and tests and laboratory reports will be connected using a common unique ID in the database management system (DBMS) built for this survey. Robust quality control measures have been built into each step of the survey. The study examines the data focused on different aspects of family health, including reproductive health, adolescent and child health, gender issues in the family, ageing, mental health, and other social problems in a family. Multistage random sampling has been used in the study to enable comparison between tribes. The anthropometric measurements and biochemical tests would help to identify the indicators of chronic diseases among various age groups of the population.

Economic Reforms and Food Security

Members of rural households in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are both vulnerable to the health burdens that stem from food insecurity and central to improving the availability and affordability of wholesome foods. It has been estimated that chronic and hidden hunger can be alleviated by implementing a suite of nutrition-specific interventions at a cost of US\$9.6 billion per annum. This can be accelerated with complementary food system-based interventions. However, such interventions are hampered by a limited understanding of food security status and its associations with rural livelihoods. Therefore, the primary objective of this thesis was to describe, analyse and understand food security in rural landholding households in predominantly mixed crop-livestock agricultural systems of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The secondary objective was to improve the methodological basis of household level food security studies. The rural household multi-indicator survey (RHOMIS) tool was developed to describe and analyse the circumstances of rural households. The RHOMIS tool aims to adhere to the principles of being time-efficient, utilitarian, user-friendly, flexible and reliable. The credibility, consistency and reliability of data collected using three different farm household surveys. The shorter and more targeted survey tool, RHOMIS, performed better in terms of staying within credible bounds. Measurements of maize yields and land area owned were found to be less reliable than other variables. Despite the limitations in data quality, our analysis shows that if the same farm households are followed over time, the sample sizes needed to detect substantial changes are in the order of hundreds of surveys, and not in the thousands. The RHOMIS tool was then used to quantify changes in livelihoods and food security status in an urban linked, high potential region of Tanzania. Households in the study site adaptively responded to local and national circumstances. Changes in land ownership, livestock-holdings and high value crop production were most likely related to market opportunities and personal circumstances, rather than to direct interventions. Several households made strategic changes by expanding land ownership, planting perennial crops and investing in exotic cattle breeds; many households tactically utilised their land for diversified, mixed crop-livestock production. A central finding of this study is that the complex risk management strategies and market responsiveness demonstrated by the `Rising' clusters are at odds with single focus activities that external organisations tend to promote. Subsequently, instances of chronic and hidden hunger were analysed in two provinces of Burkina Faso. The results of this study show that in both provinces, the ability to purchase food is what differentiates the more food secure households from their less food secure counterparts. This finding does not detract from the utility of subsistence production -- where consumption of own-farm sourced food catered for between 72\% and 91\% of the annual energy requirements. Further, households were observed to be pursuing market-oriented strategies in combination with production diversification -- likely to reduce risk exposure to climatic or economic shocks. In a large sample of households across SSA, we found that as many as 40\% of households were classified as chronically hungry in the lean period. Prevalence of micronutrient dietary gaps were high, ranging from 35\% of households to 68\%. Vulnerability to dietary gaps differed by household composition, livelihood characteristics and agro-ecological zone (AEZ). It is the combination of livelihood characteristics and the agro-ecological production potential that drive the availability of food and income. It was found that households fail to purchase food categories that nutritionally complement their own agricultural products. Furthermore, households with a livestock component to their farm were found to have a lower prevalence of chronic and hidden hunger. In extended analyses, the gender of household head and stage of life were found to be associated with the number of household inhabitants and thus influence nutritional requirements and food security status throughout the year. The high prevalence of food insecurity, the complexity of associations and the failure to nutritionally complement own-production with purchases have implications for developing effective interventions. Programs can be designed as `packages' of agricultural and non-agricultural interventions to maximise adoption and maximise the positive impact on food and nutrition security throughout the year.

Aggregate estimates of food expenditure are consistent with such a possibility, implying income/expenditure elasticities close to one. However, the high degree of aggregation at which such estimates are made means that the considerable increase in price per nutrient as income increases is ignored, and the nutrient elasticities are therefore overstated. Estimates for a rural south Indian sample indicate that this bias is considerable and that the true nutrient elasticities with respect to income may be close to zero.

Who Eats, Where, What, and How? COVID-19, Food Security, and Canadian Foodscapes

Food Security and Dietary Patterns among the Urban Poor in Africa

Households food security clove agribusiness in Sinjai Regency has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has resulted in a decrease in their income. The main objective of this study is to analyze the food security levels of clove agribusiness households in Sinjai Regency during the COVID-19 pandemic and determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the food security of clove agribusiness households in Sinjai Regency. The study used purposive sampling in the cultivation sector and snowball sampling in the upstream and downstream sectors of clove agribusiness households. A descriptive research method with a quantitative approach and the Dietary Diversity Score (DDS) analysis method is used in this study to analyze the data collected from 65 clove agribusiness households. The results showed that 65% of the clove agribusiness households sample classified as food secure and highly food secure during the COVID-19 pandemic. Then the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the food security level in this study is determined by comparing the food security level of clove agribusiness households before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, 91% of household samples a classified as food secure and highly food secure. This means that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the food security level of clove agribusiness households is very influential which has caused a decrease in the food security level from 91% of households classified as secure food and highly secure food to only 65% of households.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an adverse impact on the Rohingya and the Bangladeshi host communities, which have been well documented in the literature. However, the specific groups of people rendered most vulnerable and marginalized during the pandemic have not been studied comprehensively. This paper draws on data to identify the most vulnerable groups of people within the Rohingya and the host communities of Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study employed a systematic sequential method to identify the most vulnerable groups in the context of Rohingya and Host communities of Cox's Bazar. We conducted a rapid literature review (n = 14 articles) to list down Most vulnerable groups (MVGs) in the studied contexts during the COVID-19 pandemic and conducted four (04) group sessions with humanitarian providers and relevant stakeholders in a research design workshop to refine the list. We also conducted field visits to both communities and interviewed community people using In-depth interviews (n = 16), Key-informant Interviews (n = 8), and several informal discussions to identify the most vulnerable groups within them and their social drivers of vulnerabilities. Based on the feedback received from the community, we finalized our MVGs criteria. The data collection commenced from November 2020 to March 2021. Informed consent was sought from all participants, and ethical clearance for this study was obtained from the IRB of BRAC JPGSPH. The most vulnerable groups identified in this study were: single female household heads, pregnant and lactating mothers, persons with disability, older adults, and adolescents. Our analysis also found some factors that may determine the different levels of vulnerabilities and risks faced by some groups more than others in the Rohingya and host communities during the pandemic. Some of these factors include economic constraints, gender norms, food security, social safety-security, psychosocial well-being, access to healthcare services, mobility, dependency, and a sudden halt in education. One of the most significant impacts of COVID-19 was the loss of earning sources, especially for the already economically vulnerable; this had far-reaching consequences on individuals' food security and food consumption. Across the communities, it was found that the economically most affected group was single female household heads. The elderly and pregnant and lactating mothers face challenges seeking health services due to their restricted mobility and dependency on other family members. Persons living with disabilities from both contexts reported feelings of inadequacy in their families, exacerbated during the pandemic. Additionally, the shutdown in the formal education, and informal learning centres in both communities had the most significant impact on the adolescents during the COVID-19 lockdown. This study identifies the most vulnerable groups and their vulnerabilities amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the Rohingya and Host communities of Cox's Bazar. The reasons behind their vulnerabilities are intersectional and represent deeply embedded patriarchal norms that exist in both communities. The findings are essential for the humanitarian aid agencies and policymakers for evidence-based decision-making and service provisions for addressing the vulnerabilities of the most vulnerable groups.

The present research is realised in the frame of the ZEU project “LUCA” (Land Use, Ecosystem Services and Human Welfare in Central Asia). LUCA builds a platform for joint analysis of land use effects for a whole region, involving participants from various countries of Central Asia. In the transition from planned to market economies, the Central Asian Republics experienced rising poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition as well as serious degradation of water and land resources. The process to a market oriented economy has not been adequately supported by national institutional development. It resulted in a reduced living standard. Land use strategies in Uzbekistan determine the level of food security. While the area of rangelands is vast, the livestock farming and production of grains, fruits and vegetables play a major role in food security and also are the basic source of rural population income. More than 60% of Uzbeks live in rural area. Uzbekistan produces adequate calories to supply the population but almost 30 % lives below the food poverty line (IFPRI, 2006). The poorest population spends more than 60 % of income for food and takes a diet dominated by cereals. The existing system of the “state order” to produce cotton and wheat does not allow to growing up food crops in adequate amount. The survey is focused on questions on the socio-economic situation, societal determinants of food supply, food consumption patterns, eating habits, and coping strategies managing food crisis on household level. Markhamat region of Andijan province and Denau region of Surkhandarya province are the two most populated regions of Uzbekistan and presented as the study area. The data collection is based on the own structured questionnaire, on the Household Food Security Survey Module (HFSSM), Food Consumption Score (FCS), and Food List Recall. Data analysis was done with SPSS. The main results show the percentage of food secure and food insecure households as well as the food consumption status of these households concerning cash and food crops households are producing on their farm land and/or on their homestead plot. The results show that the main indicator of the level of income, food security situation and food consumption status of household is the production strategy. Thereby the more households produce cotton and wheat they will have less income, and a worse food security and food consumption status.

The Report of the High-Level Committee on Socio-Economic, Health and Educational Status of Tribal Communities of India (2014) details the situation of adivasi/indigenous communities in India: Scheduled Tribes (ST), de-notified tribes and particularly vulnerable tribal groups. The report sets out the terrain for a consideration of human rights of indigenous/adivasis/tribal/aboriginal communities in India. 1 Sixty per cent of the forest area in the country is in tribal areas. Fifty-one of the 58 districts with forest cover greater than 67 per cent are tribal districts. Three states – Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand – account for 70 per cent of India’s coal reserves, 80 per cent of its high-grade iron ore, 60 per cent of its bauxite and almost 100 per cent of its chromite reserves. Forty per cent of those displaced by dams are tribal peoples. A look at violent conflict, whether in Schedule V States or in Schedule VI States, shows that ‘the state is involved in all of these conflicts in some way or another.’ Not surprisingly, the areas where these wars are being waged (with the state as party) are tribal areas with rich mineral reserves. The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) guarantees impunity to state perpetrators of extrajudicial murder and assault, and there are a large number of peaceful mass movements against the appropriation of tribal homelands by the state and by corporations. The definition of what is a tribe, and who is recognized as belonging to a ‘Scheduled Tribe,’ far from being a matter of academic and historical interest alone, is critical to the application of human rights standards and specific constitutional protections – rights to equality, non-discrimination, life and liberty and the guarantee of autonomy in governance under Schedules V and VI of the Indian constitution, for instance. 2 While most of these protections are available to groups named in the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order 1950, there are tribal communities that fall within the categories of “Scheduled Castes” (SC) and ‘Other Backward Classes’, and some that do not fall into any of these categories. Around 91 percent of the Scheduled Tribes live in rural areas; while about 9 per cent of all Hindus are ST, close to 87 percent of ST declare themselves as Hindu, 33 percent of all Christians are ST and close to 79 percent of ‘other religions’ are ST, the last an indication of the strong presence of autochthonous religions among tribes/adivasis. The Scheduled Tribes report ‘owning’ larger amounts of land when compared to Scheduled Castes (SCs), which might be suggestive of an adivasi understanding of access to forests as ownership; however, this coexists with sharp disparities in monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE), with MPCE for Scheduled Tribes being the lowest among all social groups. In general, according to Deshpande, indicators of ST standard of living show that they are the most marginalized among social groups with clear and persistent disparities. Against this background, this chapter presents a framework for approaching the field of human rights with reference to adivasi communities in India. It opens a window to understanding adivasi/indigenous rights in India by introducing arguments around the law in relation to the experience of being adivasi in India.

Agriculture production is directly dependent on climate change and weather. Possible changes in temperature, precipitation and CO2 concentration are expected to significantly impact crop growth and ultimately we lose our crop productivity and indirectly affect the sustainable food availability issue. The overall impact of climate change on worldwide food production is considered to be low to moderate with successful adaptation and adequate irrigation. Climate change has a serious impact on the availability of various resources on the earth especially water, which sustains life on this planet. The global food security situation and outlook remains delicately imbalanced amid surplus food production and the prevalence of hunger, due to the complex interplay of social, economic, and ecological factors that mediate food security outcomes at various human and institutional scales. Weather aberration poses complex challenges in terms of increased variability and risk for food producers and the energy and water sectors. Changes in the biosphere, biodiversity and natural resources are adversely affecting human health and quality of life. Throughout the 21st century, India is projected to experience warming above global level. India will also begin to experience more seasonal variation in temperature with more warming in the winters than summers. Longevity of heat waves across India has extended in recent years with warmer night temperatures and hotter days, and this trend is expected to continue. Strategic research priorities are outlined for a range of sectors that underpin global food security, including: agriculture, ecosystem services from agriculture, climate change, international trade, water management solutions, the water-energy-food security nexus, service delivery to smallholders and women farmers, and better governance models and regional priority setting. There is a need to look beyond agriculture and invest in affordable and suitable farm technologies if the problem of food insecurity is to be addressed in a sustainable manner. Introduction Globally, agriculture is one of the most vulnerable sectors to climate change. This vulnerability is relatively higher in India in view of the large population depending on agriculture and poor coping capabilities of small and marginal farmers. Impacts of climate change pose a serious threat to food security. “Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” (World Food Summit, 1996). This definition gives rise to four dimensions of food security: availability of food, accessibility (economically and physically), utilization (the way it is used and assimilated by the human body) and stability of these three dimensions. According to the United Nations, in 2015, there are still 836 million people in the world living in extreme poverty (less than USD1.25/day) (UN, 2015). And according to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), at least 70 percent of the very poor live in rural areas, most of them depending partly (or completely) on agriculture for their livelihoods. It is estimated that 500 million smallholder farms in the developing world are supporting almost 2 billion people, and in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa these small farms produce about 80 percent of the food consumed. Climate change threatens to reverse the progress made so far in the fight against hunger and malnutrition. As highlighted by the assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change (IPCC), climate change augments and intensifies risks to food security for the most vulnerable countries and populations. Few of the major risks induced by climate change, as identified by IPCC have direct consequences for food security (IPCC, 2007). These are mainly to loss of rural livelihoods and income, loss of marine and coastal ecosystems, livelihoods loss of terrestrial and inland water ecosystems and food insecurity (breakdown of food systems). Rural farmers, whose livelihood depends on the use of natural resources, are likely to bear the brunt of adverse impacts. Most of the crop simulation model runs and experiments under elevated temperature and carbon dioxide indicate that by 2030, a 3-7% decline in the yield of principal cereal crops like rice and wheat is likely in India by adoption of current production technologies. Global warming impacts growth, reproduction and yields of food and horticulture crops, increases crop water requirement, causes more soil erosion, increases thermal stress on animals leading to decreased milk yields and change the distribution and breeding season of fisheries. Fast changing climatic conditions, shrinking land, water and other natural resources with rapid growing population around the globe has put many challenges before us (Mukherjee, 2014). Food is going to be second most challenging issue for mankind in time to come. India will also begin to experience more seasonal variation in temperature with more warming in the winters than summers (Christensen et al., 2007). Climate change is posing a great threat to agriculture and food security in India and it's subcontinent. Water is the most critical agricultural input in India, as 55% of the total cultivated areas do not have irrigation facilities. Currently we are able to secure food supplies under these varying conditions. Under the threat of climate variability, our food grain production system becomes quite comfortable and easily accessible for local people. India's food grain production is estimated to rise 2 per cent in 2020-21 crop years to an all-time high of 303.34 million tonnes on better output of rice, wheat, pulse and coarse cereals amid good monsoon rains last year. In the 2019-20 crop year, the country's food grain output (comprising wheat, rice, pulses and coarse cereals) stood at a record 297.5 million tonnes (MT). Releasing the second advance estimates for 2020-21 crop year, the agriculture ministry said foodgrain production is projected at a record 303.34 MT. As per the data, rice production is pegged at record 120.32 MT as against 118.87 MT in the previous year. Wheat production is estimated to rise to a record 109.24 MT in 2020-21 from 107.86 MT in the previous year, while output of coarse cereals is likely to increase to 49.36 MT from 47.75 MT. Pulses output is seen at 24.42 MT, up from 23.03 MT in 2019-20 crop year. In the non-foodgrain category, the production of oilseeds is estimated at 37.31 MT in 2020-21 as against 33.22 MT in the previous year. Sugarcane production is pegged at 397.66 MT from 370.50 MT in the previous year, while cotton output is expected to be higher at 36.54 million bales (170 kg each) from 36.07. This production figure seem to be sufficient for current population, but we need to improve more and more with vertical farming and advance agronomic and crop improvement tools for future burgeoning population figure under the milieu of climate change issue. Our rural mass and tribal people have very limited resources and they sometime complete depend on forest microhabitat. To order to ensure food and nutritional security for growing population, a new strategy needs to be initiated for growing of crops in changing climatic condition. The country has a large pool of underutilized or underexploited fruit or cereals crops which have enormous potential for contributing to food security, nutrition, health, ecosystem sustainability under the changing climatic conditions, since they require little input, as they have inherent capabilities to withstand biotic and abiotic stress. Apart from the impacts on agronomic conditions of crop productions, climate change also affects the economy, food systems and wellbeing of the consumers (Abbade, 2017). Crop nutritional quality become very challenging, as we noticed that, zinc and iron deficiency is a serious global health problem in humans depending on cereal-diet and is largely prevalent in low-income countries like Sub-Saharan Africa, and South and South-east Asia. We report inefficiency of modern-bred cultivars of rice and wheat to sequester those essential nutrients in grains as the reason for such deficiency and prevalence (Debnath et al., 2021). Keeping in mind the crop yield and nutritional quality become very daunting task to our food security issue and this can overcome with the proper and time bound research in cognizance with the environment. Threat and challenges In recent years, climate change has become a debatable issue worldwide. South Asia will be one of the most adversely affected regions in terms of impacts of climate change on agricultural yield, economic activity and trading policies. Addressing climate change is central for global future food security and poverty alleviation. The approach would need to implement strategies linked with developmental plans to enhance its adaptive capacity in terms of climate resilience and mitigation. Over time, there has been a visible shift in the global climate change initiative towards adaptation. Adaptation can complement mitigation as a cost-effective strategy to reduce climate change risks. The impact of climate change is projected to have different effects across societies and countries. Mitigation and adaptation actions can, if appropriately designed, advance sustainable development and equity both within and across countries and between generations. One approach to balancing the attention on adaptation and mitigation strategies is to compare the costs and benefits of both the strategies. The most imminent change is the increase in the atmospheric temperatures due to increase levels of GHGs (Green House Gases) i.e. carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) etc into the atmosphere. The global mean annual temperatures at the end of the 20th

Development of a Tribally-led Gardening Curriculum for Indigenous Preschool Children: The FRESH Study