Research provides the bricks and mortar for
our food systems to ‘Build Back Better’
By Elwyn Grainger-Jones
MONTPELLIER, France, July
22, 2020 (IPS) — The COVID-
19 pandemic has exposed
the structural weaknesses of
today’s food systems, showing
how quickly global networks of
food production, trade and supply
can waver under the impact
of a single disease.
By compromising access to
safe, nutritious food through
enforced restrictions on distribution
and labour resulting
in shortages and price rises,
the coronavirus outbreak has
shaken the foundations of global
wellbeing, with repercussions
for health, livelihoods,
and equality.
But while such an interconnected
system, in which food
and agriculture prop up healthy
economies, environments and
societies, has its vulnerabilities,
it also points to potential
strengths.
By responding with the best
available science and research
on resilient, healthy and sustainable
food systems, the global
community can not only
recover food security, but it can
also build back better entire
systems that support health,
nutrition, incomes and climate
action.
This is why CGIAR’s response
to COVID-19 is underpinned by
four key pillars of research that
provide crucial insights into
how to transform food systems
with short-, medium- and longterm
changes for the better
ahead of the 2021 UN Food
Systems Summit.
In the months leading up to
the decisive summit, CGIAR
will make the case for a sciencebased
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approach to response,
recovery and resilience, to
support a much-needed transformation
of food production,
distribution, consumption and
disposal, which form global
food systems.
The first of these four pillars
is research into food systems
and within this, CGIAR has
prioritised the means and ways
to ensure sufficient and diverse
food supplies during the pandemic
and its aftermath.
For example, as part of the
short-term response in the next
12 months, CGIAR will gather
and provide on-the-ground
monitoring data and scientific
evidence that will help policymakers
and agencies to better
understand and overcome the
pressures on local and regional
food systems.
The CGIAR Research Program
on Water, Land and Ecosystems
(WLE) is monitoring
harvests in South Asia to identify
food supply shocks caused
by COVID-19 while the Alliance
of Bioversity International and
CIAT will document the effects
of the pandemic on the production
and consumption of
rice in Latin America and the
Caribbean.
Meanwhile, researchers are
working to improve the very
starting points for food production,
from improved rice
germplasm to improved species
of carp to produce more
and better food to consume
and to sell.
The second research pillar
addressed the need for robust
understanding of both animal
and human health to support
the sustainable growth of animal
agriculture.
Research dedicated to “One
Health” – or the concept that
animal, human and environmental
health is inextricable
– includes the threat of disease
spillover between people and
livestock as well as improved
disease control measures from
hygiene and decontamination
to vaccination and safe food
storage.
The CGIAR COVID-19 Hub
is carrying out research into
food safety in informal value
chains, for example, in Kenya’s
dairy sector and the pork market
in Vietnam.
Such research offers valuable
insights to inform and
shape government and multilateral
investments that prioritise
protecting the most vulnerable
from the impact of the
pandemic.
Under this third research
pillar, scientists are studying
the effects of social protection
programs, identifying areas
of vulnerability and mapping
local food systems to understand
existing and needed coping
mechanisms, which are
often embedded in informal
and social structures.
Finally, the fourth research
pillar is focused on the broader
framework needed for policies
and investment that support
response, recovery and longterm
resilience.
At a country level, this means
using science and research to
develop tailored policies that
mitigate the impact of shocks
on the most vulnerable.
In Bangladesh, CGIAR
research and evidence is being
used to develop interventions
designed around specific crop
seasons as well as household
food aid distribution and wet
market management.
And at a global level, CGIAR
is also working with UN agencies
and development partners
on research including phonebased
survey assessments to
understand the impacts of
COVID-19 on rural household
livelihoods and food security.
COVID-19 may have caused
devastating setbacks and instability
around the world that risk
undermining progress towards
global development, including
ending hunger, malnutrition
and poverty. But for those of us
working on agricultural development
to serve public health,
wellbeing and prosperity, the
pandemic has only accelerated
efforts towards our mission.
CGIAR research in four key
areas can help ensure that
instead of uprooting progress
towards the UN Sustainable
Development Goals, the pandemic
is taken as an opportunity
to add urgent reinforcements
and bolster the structures
on which global development
depends.
Between now and the culmination
of the UN Food Systems
Summit, countries and
authorities must build stronger
bridges with the academic and
research community to ensure
that all of us can build back
better.
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Different vegetables growing in an automated greenhouse prototype by Agrilution are
seen in Munich, Germany, August 28, 2015. The Munich start-up Agrilution developed an
automated greenhouse appliance known as “plantCube” with the intention of bringing the
production of healthier food closer to people. REUTERS / Lukas Barth
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