Many industrial cities across Africa have been shut down because of quarantine measures to limit the pandemic, putting millions of people out of work.
While lockdowns and curfews may aid in the containment of the pandemic, they may also harm many people's "stomach infrastructure" and, in the worst-case scenario, result in a serious food crisis with increased hunger and malnutrition.
As a result, many individuals are concerned about the influence of the pandemic and quarantine measures on the food chain, given that food is a basic human necessity.
From a supply standpoint, manufacturing across the continent has been severely hampered, and the restrictions on mobility and absolute lockdown have resulted in a severe labor shortage. These restrictions have interrupted any farm's production because of ifficulty or simply inability to reach farm since the lockdown began.
Farm already has a surplus of perishable items, which would result in a loss of income. Planting supplies that were prepared in advance of the planting season based on demand could have perish. However, due to the inter-region travel prohibition, farmers have been unable to obtain these supplies. According to many experts, there is an added cost because the goods must be kept until the farmers arrive.
Another major issue raised by agribusinesses polled in Nigeria, Ghana, and Cameroon is the inability to access prospective customers, resulting in a broken supply-demand cycle.
Due to the curfew, farmers in Nigeria are having difficulty transporting their crops to market. As a result, demand is increasingly outstripping supply, and substantial product price increases are likely to be severe.
Despite these obstacles, the surveyed agribusinesses remain upbeat and convinced that there is no need to panic just yet. However, to prevent the approaching greater challenge of a food catastrophe, they uniformly urge for favorable measures to aid smallholders.
Among the significant comments made by the studied agribusinesses is the need to offer timely assistance to farmers, particularly those involved in primary production, processing, transportation, and marketing.
Farmers are highly significant at this moment to guarantee that this crisis does not spawn a more serious problem of food instability and famine. Farmers must be assisted with palliatives that aid productivity, simplify supply chains, and build market linkages for their goods to meet the food security goal in the middle of the Covid-19 crisis.
