The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has updated their policy decision analysis database (FAPDA), which shares insight into how decision makers in the global food and agricultural sectors are addressing the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In addition to updating their FAPDA database, the FAO has also outlined some broad guidelines for countries to follow in order to mitigate the impacts of the coronavirus on the global food supply chain.
Among these principles are avoiding food export bans, which will keep vital links of the food supply and value chains moving.
See Also:Covid-19 UpdatesHowever, the FAO acknowledged that each country is socially, economically and agriculturally unique, and therefore needs tailor-made policies. The organization also acknowledged that the current pandemic “raises a host of issues related to existing institutions.”
Examples of customized policies that the FAO highlighted were Poland offering subsidized loans for food-processing facilities and India introducing software for trading fresh produce from warehouses rather than from wholesale markets.
The FAO further announced that they are updating their “keeping food and agricultural systems alive” policy platform, which gives users access to analyses of the viability of policies designed to maintain food and agricultural systems.
According to FAO senior economist Lorenzo Bellù, this platform, which offers access to policies in more than 130 countries, enables decision makers to move beyond proposals and diagnoses to prescriptive and evidence-based solutions.
“There are a lot of trade-offs to consider, but this tool can help countries make them wisely and contribute to expediting the establishment of holistic and inclusive policy frameworks,” he said.