Miller Magazine Issue: 144 December 2021

24 MILLER / december 2021 NEWS Approximately three billion people, almost 40 per cent of the world’s population, cannot afford a healthy diet and an- other one billion people could join their ranks should further unpredictable events reduce incomes by one-third, FAO's The State of Food & Agriculture 2021 report highlighted. Countries need to make their agrifood systems more resilient to sudden shocks of the kind witnessed during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has emerged as a major driver of the latest rise in global hunger estimates. According to a new report published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), without proper preparation unpredict- able shocks will continue to undermine agrifood systems. This year’s The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) re- port by FAO is entitled “Making agrifood systems more resil- ient to shocks and stresses.” It provides an assessment of the ability of national agrifood systems to respond to or recover readily from shocks and stressors. It also offers guidance to governments on how they can improve resilience. Today there are approximately 3 billion people who can- not afford a healthy diet. The SOFA 2021 report estimates that an additional 1 billion people would join their ranks if a shock reduced incomes by one-third. Moreover, food costs could increase for up to 845 million people if a disruption to critical transport links were to occur. The report defines shocks as “short-term deviations from long-term trends that have substantial negative effects on a system, people’s state of well-being, assets, livelihoods, safety and ability to with- stand future shocks.” Examples include extreme weather events and surges in plant and animal diseases and pests. Even before COVID-19 broke out, the world was not on track to meet its commitment to end hunger and malnu- trition by 2030. And while food production and supply chains have historically been vulnerable to climate ex- tremes, armed conflicts or increases in global food prices, the frequency and severity of such shocks is on the rise. The world’s agrifood systems - the complex web of activities involved in the production of food and non-food agricultural products, as well as their storage, processing, transportation, distribution and consumption, produce 11 billion tonnes of food a year and employ billions of people, directly or indi- rectly. The urgency of strengthening their capacity to endure shocks cannot be stressed enough. Based on the evidence of the report, FAO recommends that governments make resilience in agrifood systems a stra- tegic part of their responses to ongoing and future challeng- es. The key here is diversification - of input sources, produc- tion, markets and supply chains, as well as of actors – since diversity creates multiple pathways for absorbing shocks. Supporting the development of small and medium agrifood enterprises, cooperatives, consortia and clusters helps main- tain diversity in domestic agrifood value chains. Another key factor is connectivity. Well-connected agri- food networks overcome disruptions faster by shifting sourc- es of supply and channels for transport, marketing, inputs and labour. Finally, enhancing the resilience capacities of vulnerable households is critical to ensure a world free from hunger. This can be done through improved access to assets, to diversi- fied sources of income and social protection programmes in the event of shocks. 3 billion people cannot afford healthy diet