COVID-19 and it’s impact on Food security.
ISHA DULAL
COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by corona virus. The disease causes respiratory illness (like the flu) with the symptoms such as a cough, fever and more severe cases like difficulty breathing. The global COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic was conformed to have spread to Nepal when its first case was confirmed in Kathmandu on 24 January 2020.
The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has had far reaching consequences beyond the spread of the disease and efforts to quarantine it. As the pandemic has spread around Nepal, concerns have changed from supply side, export and import also restrictions on transport inside the country.
Nepal is a landlocked country and more than 94% of people are engaged on agriculture but due to this pandemic a lot of problems are faced by the people.
The whole country is in lockdown and all farmers are staying at home without a productive job in the farm or in their business. Food security means the availability of food and ones access to it. Those population who are already facing problems with hunger, poverty and health, those people will be at high risk during this pandemic.
Nepal is suffering from the shortage of food and the government import agricultural products from the neighbouring countries every year. Due to the transformation of coronavirus the government has blocked the borders ,therefore Nepal cannot get supply of food from the neighbouring countries. Nepal cannot feed all the people with food that is grown in the country.
Blockages to transport routes are particularly obstructive for fresh food supply chains and have resulted in increased levels of food loss and waste. This affects the Nepalese agriculture badly. The lockdown has chocked off almost all the agricultural activity .
Transport restrictions and quarantine measures are likely to hamper farmers and fishers access to market. The spread of coronavirus, along with low paddy production this year would have a bad impact on food security. Therefore Reduced food production may have serious implications for food availability.
Nepal has been suffering from many types of issues every year. This year the COVID-19 is a bad star for Nepalese people. All the machinery and human resources are locked. There is no production as the raw materials are not grown in the farm. Therefore, we strongly argue that COVID-19 has a great impact on Food security.
Author is Bsc Agriculture student at IAAS, TU)