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. 2021 Mar:188:103026.
doi: 10.1016/j.agsy.2020.103026. Epub 2020 Dec 24.

Impacts of COVID-19 on agricultural production and food systems in late transforming Southeast Asia: The case of Myanmar

Duncan Boughton  1 , Joseph Goeb  1 , Isabel Lambrecht  2 , Derek Headey  3 , Hiroyuki Takeshima  2 , Kristi Mahrt  2 , Ian Masias  2 , Sophie Goudet  4 , Catherine Ragasa  2 , Mywish K Maredia  1 , Bart Minten  2 , Xinshen Diao  2
Affiliations

Impacts of COVID-19 on agricultural production and food systems in late transforming Southeast Asia: The case of Myanmar

Duncan Boughton et al. Agric Syst. 2021 Mar.

Abstract

The objective of this contribution is to report the initial impacts of measures taken to contain the COVID-19 pandemic on Myanmar's agri-food system. Myanmar is one of several late-transforming low-income countries in Southeast Asia where agriculture still plays a large role in rural livelihoods, and where food prices are a key factor affecting nutrition security for poor urban and rural households. Whereas the economic impacts of COVID-19 disruptions on tourism and manufacturing were obvious to policymakers, the impacts on the agri-food system were less evident and often more indirect. This resulted in the rural sector being allocated only a very small share of the government's initial fiscal response to mitigate the economic impacts of COVID-19. To correct this information gap, a suite of phone surveys covering a wide spectrum of actors in the agri-food system were deployed, including farm input suppliers, mechanization service providers, farmers, commodity traders, millers, food retailers and consumers. The surveys were repeated at regular intervals prior to and during the main crop production season which began shortly after nationwide COVID-19 prevention measures were implemented in April. While the results indicate considerable resilience in the agri-food system in response to the initial disruptions, persistent financial stress for a high proportion of households and agri-food system businesses indicate that the road to a full recovery will take time. The experience provides important lessons for strengthening the resilience of the agri-food system, and the livelihoods of households that depend on it.

Keywords: Agri-food system; COVID-19; Food security; Myanmar; Phone surveys; Rural livelihoods.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
COVID-19 disruptions to input supply, input demand, and collections of credit payments in the 2020 monsoon season (percentage of input retailers by survey round).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
COVID-19 disruptions to buying crops, selling crops, and collections of credit payments, percentage of crop traders by survey round.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Trends in median daily income per adult equivalent in a sample of households from urban Yangon and the rural dry zone.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Trends in community respondents' subjective estimates of extreme poverty in villages/wards across different regions of Myanmar.
Fig. A1
Fig. A1
Myanmar Agro-ecological Zones. Source: https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=1b1e3a6e98fc4780a0ea423ca568f5e8
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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