Impacts of COVID-19 on Myanmar’s agri-food system: Evidence base and policy implications PDF Download

Author: Researchers of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 18

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Book Description
Between April and October 2020, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and Michigan State University (MSU), with support from the United States Agency of International Development (USAID) and the Livelihoods and Food Security Fund (LIFT), have undertaken analyses of secondary data combined with regular telephone surveys of actors at all stages of Myanmar’s agri-food system in order to better understand the impacts of COVID-19 on the system. These analyses show that the volume of agribusiness has slowed considerably in Myanmar since COVID-19 restrictions were put in place. There is lower demand from farmers for agricultural inputs and mechanization services and lower volumes of produce traded, especially exports to neighboring countries whose borders are closed. All actors in the agri-food system are facing liquidity constraints and experiencing increased difficulties in both borrowing and recovering loans.

Author: Goeb, Joseph
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 7

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Book Description
Agricultural input retailers play a key role in Myanmar’s agri-food system by supplying farmers with fertilizer, seed, pesticides, and other inputs necessary for successful harvests. Because farm-level input use is an important driver of yields for all major food crops, shocks to the input retail sector have major implications for the welfare of rural households, as well as for their food security. This policy note presents results from round two of a five-round phone survey of agricultural input retailers. Our purpose is to provide data and insights to the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Irrigation (MOALI) and other agricultural sector stakeholders to assist them in better understanding COVID-19 related shocks to Myanmar’s agricultural input retailers. The round one results emphasized (i) widespread disruptions from the COVID-19 to both input supply and demand, (ii) higher transportation costs leading to higher input prices, and (iii) dramatically lower revenue expectations for retailers in 2020 compared to 2019.1 This note builds on the round one results by (i) exploring the effects of the COVID-19 crisis since the first-round interviews, (ii) tracking sales changes since the first round of the survey, and (iii) providing more detailed information on retailer credit and transportation.

Author: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.
ISBN: 9251345821
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 52

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Book Description
This report shares the results of a joint analysis by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) on the agri-food system in Myanmar based on an assessment conducted from August to October 2020. The analysis was part of a broader initiative to contribute to data collection and analysis linked to COVID-19, informing evidence-based programming in selected countries. Its objective was to assess the effects of COVID-19 on Myanmar’s agri-food system, which includes livestock and fishing, food supplies, livelihoods and the food security of rural people at the national level. Information is collected from primary sources of the production process: producer households, traders or marketers, inputs suppliers, extension officers and key informants. The first round of data collection has been completed, with Rounds II and III taking place in 2021. This assessment covered 75 townships in eight states and regions: Mon, Chin, Kachin, Kayin, Rakhine, Sagaing, Shan and Yangon; data were collected between mid-August to mid-October 2020, complemented by a survey of input vendors. This report was made possible by the support of the American People through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents of this report are the sole responsibility of FAO and WFP, and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.

Author: Myanmar Agriculture Policy Support Activity (MAPSA)
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description
After decades of isolationism and economic stagnation, Myanmar opened its economy in the beginning of the 2010s, leading to rapid economic growth (Myanmar’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was almost 50 percent larger in 2020 than in 2011). But the COVID-19 health crisis that started in 2020 and a military coup in the beginning of 2021 – and the subsequent increase in conflicts, forced displacements, and migration – dramatically reversed that outlook, with Myanmar’s GDP in 2022 estimated to be 13 percent smaller than three years earlier. The agricultural sector also changed accordingly during this period.

Author: Goeb, Joseph
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 7

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Book Description
Agricultural input retailers play a key role in Myanmar’s agri-food system by supplying farmers with fertilizer, seed, pesticides, and other inputs necessary for successful harvests. Because farm-level input use is an important driver of yields for all major food crops, shocks to the input retail sector have major implications both for rural household welfare and for national food security. COVID-19 and the policies enacted to mitigate its spread have shocked Myanmar’s economy. Agricultural input retailers, like many other businesses, are squeezed between both supply and demand side shocks. On the supply side, agricultural inputs have long, international supply chains that could be disrupted by restrictions on international or internal trade and transport. On the demand side, the shocks to rural households’ incomes, crop prices, and uncertainty could affect input purchases. This research note seeks to help the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation of the Government of Myanmar and agricultural sector stakeholders understand the related shocks to Myanmar’s agricultural input retailers. We conducted a phone survey with 221 input shop owners and managers to understand (i) the demand-side effects of COVID-19 shocks as reflected in sales of key inputs, such as fertilizers, maize seed, vegetable seeds, and pesticides,the supply-side effects both in general and for key inputs, and (iii) business responses to COVID-19 shocks.

Author: Goeb, Joseph
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 8

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Book Description
Agricultural input retailers play a key role in Myanmar’s agri-food system by supplying farmers with fertilizer, seed, pesticides, and other inputs necessary for successful harvests. Because farm-level input use is an important driver of yields for all major food crops, shocks from the COVID-19 crisis to the input retail sector have major implications for rural household welfare as well as food security. In this policy note, we present results and analysis on the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on agricultural input retailers from a five-round telephone panel survey of between 150 and 200 retailers in Shan, Kachin, Bago, Ayeyarwady, Sagaing, and Mandalay that was implemented every two weeks from mid-May to late July 2020. 1 The objective of this survey was to provide data and insights to the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Irrigation (MOALI) and agricultural sector stakeholders so that they better understand the nature of COVID-19 related shocks to Myanmar’s agricultural input retailers. Previous policy notes2 mostly focused on the survey rounds individually, tracking the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on agricultural input retailers as they were happening. In this note, we take a more comprehensive approach by looking back over all five survey rounds to understand how the effects of the COVID-19 crisis evolved over time. In particular, this note presents results from May 2020 through July 2020 across the five survey rounds on (i) disruptions caused by the COVID-19 crisis, (ii) responses to these disruptions, (iii) sales of fertilizer, maize seed, vegetable seed, and pesticides, and (iv) input retailers’ employees and hired labor.

Author: Myanmar Agriculture Policy Support Activity (MAPSA)
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 25

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Book Description
The recent history of rural economic transformation in Myanmar and the effects of COVID-19 and the military coup in February 2021 provide important lessons for the design and implementation of plans to help the country recover from these scourges. The impoverishment of farming communities in Myanmar during decades of socialist military rule, beginning in the 1960s until the turn of the century, led to an outflux of migrants to neighboring countries. As the country opened up to foreign investment through economic reforms initiated in 2011, rural wages surged and farm mechanization services expanded rapidly. Together with increased remittance flows from migrants, higher rural household incomes drove growth in a wide range of non-farm service enterprises. Nevertheless, agricultural growth was low and most crop subsectors stagnated due to underlying and unresolved structural constraints such as poor infrastructure and inequality in land access. As in many other countries in Asia, border closures and lockdowns instituted to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in early 2020 resulted in widespread employment and income losses. The Myanmar government pro-actively sought to mitigate the impacts through expanded credit to farmers and businesses. By the end of 2020, Myanmar was beginning to recover from the economic stresses of COVID-19. However, the February 2021 military coup resulted in a far more severe economic downturn than COVID-19 due to the collapse of the financial system, the massive resignations by public sector employees, and the prolonged movement restrictions. Coup-induced state failure greatly magnified the health and economic consequences of COVID-19 in terms of poverty, food insecurity, and stalled economic transformation. This paper uses a combination of macro, meso, and micro-level analyses to measure the impacts of COVID-19 and state failure on rural economic transformation through the lens of the agri-food system, and to draw lessons for policies to support broad-based and resilient economic recovery.

Author: Myanmar Agriculture Policy Support Activity (MAPSA)
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 6

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Book Description
Key findings Forty-two percent of farming communities experienced lower agricultural production than normal in the past 12 months, mainly due to drought and pests. Forty-four percent of farming communities reported greater difficulties in selling agricultural products than usual. Low crop price was the most frequently reported disruption. There are pressing concerns for the upcoming monsoon season harvest. Inorganic fertilizer prices are skyrocketing–compound fertilizer prices increased 56 percent in September 2021 compared to September 2020 while urea prices increased 72 percent compared to last year. About one-third of farming communities hired fewer agricultural wage workers this year compared to last year, with 46 percent reporting that this was mainly due to financial problems. For the current monsoon season, 45 percent of farming communities expect overall agricultural production will be lower than that of last year. Recommended actions Implement measures such as input subsidies, vouchers, or agricultural grants to limit the impact of the price increases of fertilizers and other inputs on agricultural production. As farming communities risk falling into vicious cycles of income loss, financial support is urgently needed to avoid long-lasting impacts of the crises on the agricultural performance of affected communities. Social protection is urgently needed in rural areas, including food/cash for work schemes to offset lower demand for agricultural labor.

Author: Goeb, Joseph
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 7

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Book Description
Crop traders comprise the mid-stream of Myanmar’s food supply chain. They form important links between farms and food processors, exporters, and other downstream actors. Because they are close to the farmgate on the supply chain – many purchase agricultural commodities directly from farmers – any additional challenges to traders presented by the COVID-19 crisis and corresponding policy responses have important implications for the crop marketing channels farmers use and for the prices they receive for their crops. Further, challenges or changes to crop trading will have effects on the food system downstream and, ultimately, on consumers. Traders either carry out or facilitate the sales, transport, and purchases of raw agricultural commodities. Thus, they may be negatively affected by the travel and transport restrictions imposed to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 as well as other policy measures that restrict exports or affect food retail channels to consumers. This research note seeks to help the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation (MOALI) of the Government of Myanmar and agricultural sector stakeholders understand the effects of recent COVID-19 shocks on Myanmar’s agri-food marketing system through the perspective of crop traders. We conducted a phone survey with 154 crop traders to understand the challenges of COVID-19 shocks to both their upstream and downstream operations, (ii) learn about adaptations and changes they are making in response to those challenges, and (iii) track recent (two weeks) and longer-term (last year) changes in the buying and selling prices of the commodities they trade.

Author: McDermott, John
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN: 0896294226
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
Two years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the health, economic, and social disruptions caused by this global crisis continue to evolve. The impacts of the pandemic are likely to endure for years to come, with poor, marginalized, and vulnerable groups the most affected. In COVID-19 & Global Food Security: Two Years Later, the editors bring together contributions from new IFPRI research, blogs, and the CGIAR COVID-19 Hub to examine the pandemic’s effects on poverty, food security, nutrition, and health around the world. This volume presents key lessons learned on food security and food system resilience in 2020 and 2021 and assesses the effectiveness of policy responses to the crisis. Looking forward, the authors consider how the pandemic experience can inform both recovery and longer-term efforts to build more resilient food systems.