Understanding the effects of COVID-19 on food security in Ghana

Abstract

The relationship between hunger and poverty has become clear with the outbreak of the coronavirus. Restricted people movement and border closures used to control the spread of the virus have implications for food security. Governments are challenged with allocating their scarce resources to cover additional healthcare costs and social protection expenditures which did not exist before. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warns that nations need to keep the global food supply chains across the world alive. Countries must ensure that policies put in place to stop the spread of the virus do not affect agricultural production. The poor and vulnerable have been impacted severely because of fewer resources to cope with the pandemic and require support such as community safety nets and social protection systems to reduce the impact on them. Managing the situation in the context of the four dimensions of food security will address short-term and long-term impacts of the pandemic. Key words: Coronavirus, agricultural production, poverty, dimensions of food security.