COVID-19 and agricultural value chains: Impacts and adaptations

PIM Webinar COVID-19 and agricultural value chains: Impacts and adaptations November 29, 2021 In 2020, researchers working under “Inclusive and Efficient Value Chains” (https://pim.cgiar.org/research/f3/) flagship under the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM) developed a set of standardized questionnaires for assessing the impact of COVID-19 on agricultural value chains. The set includes questionnaires for farmers, traders, and processors. Despite their brevity (interview time of 25 minutes), the questionnaires cover the impact on scale of operations, employment, input use, production, small enterprise closures, profits, and welfare and food security of proprietors. They have been applied to eight value chains in Central America, Africa, and Asia. To deepen the understanding of how agri-food value chains have been adapting to the new reality, in 2021, the CGIAR COVID-19 Hub (https://a4nh.cgiar.org/covidhub/covid-hub-focus-addressing-value-chain-fractures/) working group on value chains issued a call for proposals on the theme of “Assessing the effectiveness of innovations and measures in maintaining agri-food value chains functional during COVID-19.” In this webinar, we will present some major findings of these studies in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Bangladesh. Ben Belton (WorldFish) and Diego Naziri (CIP) will present how small-scale traders, wholesalers and processors in the potato and fish value chains in Kenya have pivoted to cope with and adapt to the changing circumstances brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. Gashaw Abate (IFPRI) will present on the performance of Ethiopia’s coffee value chain during the COVID-19 pandemic. Abut Hayat Md. Saiful Islam (Bangladesh Agricultural University) and Marcel Gatto (CIP) will provide insights into the impacts of COVID-19 on several actors in value chain for potato in Bangladesh. Humnath Bhandari (IRRI) and G.M. Monirul Alam (BSMRAU-Bangladesh) will discuss the major impacts of COVID-19 on the rice and fish value chains in Bangladesh, focusing on the government interventions, how value chain actors adapted, and what lessons have been learnt. Presenters: Ben Belton - Global Lead, Social and Economic Inclusion, WorldFish Diego Naziri – value chain and postharvest specialist, International Potato Center (CIP); Leader of “Nutritious Food and Value Added through Post-harvest Innovation” research flagship in the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB) Gashaw Tadesse Abate - Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Abut Hayat Md. Saiful Islam – Professor at Department of Agricultural Economics at Bangladesh Agricultural University in Mymensingh, Bangladesh. Marcel Gatto – Agricultural Economist at the International Potato Center (CIP). Humnath Bhandari - Senior Agricultural Economist and Country Representative, IRRI Bangladesh. G.M. Monirul Alam - Professor, Faculty of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Rahman Agricultural University, Gazipur, Bangladesh. Discussant: Sudha Narayanan, Research Fellow, South Asia Regional Office, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) Moderator: Nicholas Minot, Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and co-leader of PIM Flagship3 on Efficient and Inclusive Value Chains. Learn more and access presentations: https://bit.ly/3DN18in Other webinars from the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM): http://bit.ly/PIM-Webinars