The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) warned that in many countries informal laborers, vulnerable urban populations and others that rely heavily on the market are likely to be hit by adverse effects of the coronavirus pandemic

While the full impact of the COVID-19 crisis is still unfolding, it is clear that this outbreak will have significant negative effects on people all along the food supply chain, says a new report released by FAO.

The report indicates that while there is enough supply of food in the world to feed everyone, the COVID-19 outbreak has the potential to disrupt critical food supply chains severely, both between countries and inside countries in rural and urban areas.

This situation is likely to have significant adverse effects on the most vulnerable actors, such as informal laborers, vulnerable urban populations and others that rely heavily on the market to meet their food needs. Reduced or lost wages and unstable prices would have serious implications for acute food security and malnutrition levels in these populations.

These impacts could potentially lead vulnerable households to resort to negative coping mechanisms, including a reduced number of meals, increased school drop-out rates, reduced means to cover health expenditures, gender-based violence, selling off productive assets, etc.

In this context, FAO has reviewed its ongoing humanitarian/resilience programming in different countries and analyzed the potential impacts of the virus in order to ensure continuous support for the most vulnerable and anticipatory actions to address the secondary effects of the virus.

As such, FAO tries to maintain the provision of critical assistance where there are already high levels of need while meeting new ones emerging from the effects of the coronavirus.

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