Download or read book Myanmar Agricultural livelihoods and food security in the context of COVID 19 written by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 2021-06-22 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Strengthening smallholder agriculture is essential to defend food and nutrition security and rural livelihoods in Myanmar against the COVID 19 threat Elements for a proactive response written by Boughton, Duncan and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2020-04-16 with total page 11 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is an urgent need to anticipate and mitigate the threat posed by COVID-19 to Myanmar’s agricultural sector and to rural households that depend on farming for income and for food and nutrition security. We evaluate options to address the threat and to support farmers to prepare their land and plant their crops on time in the short window before the start of the 2020 monsoon cropping season. Recognizing that no single intervention can address the full range of vulnerabilities faced by rural households, we recommend a combination: • Expansion of access to seasonal farm credit with extended loan repayment schedules; • Limited agricultural input subsidies targeting certified seed; and • Implementation of a cash transfer program to smallholder farmers. Despite the high cost of a cash transfer program, there are good reasons to expect that the benefits of such support to farm households will outweigh program costs in monetary terms – even more so if the economic benefits from the consequent lower incidence of malnutrition to which the program would contribute can be measured.

Download or read book Poverty and food insecurity during COVID 19 Telephone survey evidence from mothers in rural and urban Myanmar written by Headey, Derek D. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2020-10-07 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Myanmar had one of the lowest confirmed COVID-19 caseloads in the world in mid-2020 and was one of the few developing countries not projected to go into economic recession. However, macroeconomic projections are likely to be a poor guide to individual and household welfare in a fast-moving crisis that has involved disruption to an unusually wide range of sectors and livelihoods. To explore the impacts of COVID-19 disruptions on household poverty and coping strategies, as well as maternal food insecurity experiences, this study used a telephone survey conducted in June and July 2020 covering 2,017 mothers of nutritionally vulnerable young children in urban Yangon and rural villages of Myanmar’s Dry Zone. Stratifying results by location, livelihoods, and asset-levels, and using retrospective questions on pre-COVID-19 incomes and various COVID-19 impacts, we find that the vast majority of households have been adversely affected from loss of income and employment. Over three-quarters cite income/job losses as the main impact of COVID-19 – median incomes declined by one third and $1.90/day income-based poverty rose by around 27 percentage points between January and June 2020. Falling into poverty was most strongly associated with loss of employment (including migrant employment), but also with recent childbirth. The poor commonly coped with income losses through taking loans/credit, while better-off households drew down on savings and reduced non-food expenditures. Self-reported food insecurity experiences were much more common in the urban sample than in the rural sample, even though income-based and asset-based poverty were more prevalent in rural areas. In urban areas, around one quarter of respondents were worried about food quantities and quality, and around 10 percent stated that there were times when they had run out of food or gone hungry. Respondents who stated that their household had lost income or experienced food supply problems due to COVID-19 were more likely to report a variety of different food insecurity experiences. These results raise the concern that the welfare impacts of the COVID-19 crisis are much more serious and widespread than macroeconomic projections would suggest. Loss of employment and casual labor are major drivers of increasing poverty. Consequently, economic recovery strategies must emphasize job creation to revitalize damaged livelihoods. However, a strengthened social protection strategy should also be a critical component of economic recovery to prevent adversely affected households from falling into poverty traps and to avert the worst forms of food insecurity and malnutrition, particularly among households with pregnant women and young children. The recent second wave of COVID-19 infections in Myanmar from mid-August onwards makes the expansion of social protection even more imperative.

Download or read book Impacts of COVID 19 on Myanmar s agri food system Evidence base and policy implications written by Researchers of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2020-10-09 with total page 18 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Maintaining food and nutrition security in Myanmar during the COVID 19 crisis Lessons from India s lockdown written by International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2020-04-09 with total page 6 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The recent sudden imposition of a stringent 21-day lockdown in India in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected the food security of many vulnerable Indians. These impacts highlight the many challenges that this kind of anti-COVID intervention can pose in other settings where the labor force is mostly informally employed with poor job security and low wages, and where the agri-food systems is similarly informal with widespread use of open-air markets. Myanmar is such a setting. India’s chastening experience with food security during its lockdown suggests the following actions would be imperative for maintaining food security in Myanmar: • Allow the free movement of all goods. A stable and reliable agri-food system requires free movements of a wide range of food products (including micronutrient-rich fruits, vegetables and animal-sourced foods) as well as essential non-food goods. • Monitor food markets and agricultural value chains as closely as possible to address problems when they do arise. • Reduce risk of COVID-19 contagion by improving hygiene in Myanmar’s food markets. • Issue clear directives to police, military, and local authorities not to impede the movement of goods. The Government of Myanmar should learn from the mistakes made in India and other developing countries. We must recognize that basic food and nutrition security must be maintained at all times through this complex health and socioeconomic crisis.

Download or read book Livelihoods poverty and food insecurity in Myanmar Survey evidence from June 2020 to December 2021 written by Myanmar Agriculture Policy Support Activity (MAPSA) and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2022-02-02 with total page 15 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ten rounds of the Rural-Urban Food Security Survey (RUFSS) have been conducted between June 2020 and December 2021 to assess the impacts of Myanmar’s economic, political, and health crises on various dimensions of household welfare. RUFSS interviews about 2000 mothers of young children per round from urban Yangon, the rural Dry Zone, and recent migrants from these areas.

Download or read book Livelihoods poverty and food insecurity in Myanmar Survey evidence from June 2020 to September 2021 written by Myanmar Agriculture Policy Support Activity (MAPSA) and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2021-12-23 with total page 15 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Key Findings Nine rounds of the Rural-Urban Food Security Survey (RUFSS) have been conducted between June 2020 and September 2021 to assess the impacts of Myanmar’s economic, political, and health crises on various dimensions of household welfare. RUFSS interviews about 2000 mothers of young children per round from urban Yangon, the rural Dry Zone, and recent migrants from these areas. Key Findings ▪ Myanmar has experienced four distinct economic shocks since early 2020. The most recent of these shocks–the spread of the Delta variant–was devastating, with 63 percent of respondents stating that at least one household member had experienced COVID-like symptoms and almost all cases occurring in the May-September 2021 third wave. ▪ 16 percent of interviewed households moved townships between their first interview and September 2021. Around two-thirds of these were from the Yangon sample. ▪ Physical insecurity has emerged as a key impact of political instability, with 53 percent of responde

Download or read book Livelihoods poverty and food insecurity in Myanmar Household survey evidence from May 2021 written by Myanmar Agriculture Policy Support Activity (MAPSA) and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2021-06-22 with total page 11 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Six rounds of the Rural-Urban Food Security Survey (RUFSS) conducted in 2020 demonstrated the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on poverty and food insecurity among approximately 2,000 households with pregnant women or young children in urban Yangon and the rural Dry Zone. In this Research Note, we present results from a follow-up round conducted in May 2021.

Download or read book Monitoring the impact of COVID 19 in Myanmar Agricultural production and rural livelihoods in two irrigation schemes August 2020 survey round in Burmese written by Lambrecht, Isabel and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2020-11-04 with total page 10 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Monitoring the impact of COVID 19 in Myanmar Agricultural production and rural livelihoods in two irrigation schemes October 2020 survey round written by Lambrecht, Isabel and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2020-12-02 with total page 9 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The persistent and worsening effects of the COVID-19 crisis on rural household incomes are alarming. The onset of the second wave of infections and mitigation measures in Myanmar is continuing to depress household incomes. Key findings: Almost three-quarters of the households surveyed reported lower household income than usual in August and September. In addition to a drought and lack of irrigation water limiting crop production in August and September, 22 percent of farmers experienced difficulties accessing inputs and 28 percent invested less than usual in their farm due to financial constraints. A quarter of farmers experienced difficulties selling their produce, which is lower than the share that reported having such difficulties in previous months. However, farmers anticipate further difficulties hampering sales in coming months, mainly due to expected restrictions on mobility. Landless households have been the most adversely affected by the crisis, largely due to lost nonfarm employment, lower remittances, and further negative impacts on rural enterprises. To cope with reduced incomes, 61 percent of households reported having reduced food expenditures, 36 percent sold assets, and 37 percent took loans. Households maintained the diversity of their diets but reduced the amount of meat and fish consumed. More households reported meat and fish to be less available than in previous rounds. Government transfer programs reached 99 percent of households in the study area, mostly in the form of income assistance. Recommended actions: Assistance to rural households should be continued to soften the impact of reduced income during the COVID-19 crisis and prevent households from jeopardizing future food security and health by depleting savings and assets, acquiring debt, and reducing food expenditures. Supporting rural non-farm businesses and employment will be key to building resilience in household livelihoods and to achieving a faster overall economic recovery.

Download or read book Poverty food insecurity and social protection during COVID 19 in Myanmar Combined evidence from a household telephone survey and micro simulations written by Headey, Derek D. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2020-11-10 with total page 13 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study assesses the welfare impacts of COVID-19 on households in Myanmar by combining recent high-frequency telephone survey evidence for two specific rural and urban geographies with national-level survey-based simulations designed to assess ex-ante impacts on poverty with differing amounts of targeted cash transfers. The first source of evidence – the COVID-19 Rural and Urban Food Security Survey (C19- RUFSS) – consists of four rounds of monthly data collected from a sample of over 2,000 households, all with young children or pregnant mothers, divided evenly between urban and peri-urban Yangon and the rural Dry Zone. This survey sheds light on household incomes prior to COVID-19 (January 2020), incomes and food security status soon after the first COVID-19 wave (June 2020), the gradual economic recovery thereafter (July and August 2020), and the start of the second COVID-19 wave in September and October 2020. This survey gives timely and high-quality evidence on the recent welfare impacts of COVID-19 for two important geographies and for households that are nutritionally highly vulnerable to shocks due to the presence of very young children or pregnant mothers. However, the relatively narrow geographic and demographic focus of this telephone survey and the need for forecasting the poverty impacts of COVID-19 into 2021 prompt us to explore simulationbased evidence derived by applying parameter shocks to household models developed from nationally representative household survey data collected prior to COVID-19, the 2015 Myanmar Poverty and Living Conditions Survey (MPLCS). By realistically simulating the kinds of disruptions imposed on Myanmar’s economy by both international forces, e.g., lower agricultural exports and workers’ remittances, and domestic COVID-19 prevention measures. e.g., stay-at-home orders and temporary business closures, we not only can predict the impacts of COVID-19 on household poverty at the rural, urban, and national levels, but also can assess the further benefits to household welfare of social protection in the form of monthly household cash transfers of different magnitudes. Combined, these two sources of evidence yield insights on both the on-the-ground impacts of COVID-19 in recent months and the potential poverty reduction impacts of social protection measures in the coming year. We conclude the study with a discussion of the policy implications of these findings.

Download or read book Monitoring the impacts of COVID 19 in Myanmar Food vendors June and July 2020 survey round written by Minten, Bart and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 12 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is feared that the COVID-19 pandemic will lead to widespread increases in global poverty and food insecurity and that these negative impacts will concentrate on the most vulnerable segments of the population (Swinnen and McDermott 2020). Although Myanmar, with one of the lowest COVID-19 infection rates in the world, has been spared the worst direct impacts of the disease, its economy remains highly vulnerable to the economic fallout of the contagion. A major contributor to increased food insecurity in Myanmar is the reduction of income among vulnerable populations (Diao et al. 2020), partly due to significant declines in remittances in the country (Diao and Wang 2020). In addition, disruptions to food marketing systems and changes in farm and consumer prices could also turn out to be major drivers of food insecurity. Changes in food markets – including supply of commodities and transport - and food and agricultural prices are an obvious concern to policy makers, given the importance of agricultural prices for the income of farmers and food prices for the purchasing power of consumers.

Download or read book Monitoring the Impact of COVID 19 in Myanmar Agricultural production and rural livelihoods in two irrigation schemes August 2020 survey round written by Lambrecht, Isabel and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2020-10-27 with total page 8 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This policy note provides evidence of the immediate impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on farming communities in Myanmar’s Central Dry Zone using baseline data from January 2020 (BL) and followup telephone survey data. 1 The first round of the telephone survey was conducted with 606 households between 10 and 21 June 2020 (PS1) and inquired about the effects of COVID-19 on agricultural production and other livelihood sources from February to May 2020. The second round effects of COVID-19 in June and July.

Download or read book The continuous rise during economic growth the COVID 19 Pandemic and conflict in the adoption of labor saving agricultural technologies in Myanmar Evidence and implications written by Myanmar Agriculture Policy Support Activity (MAPSA) and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2023-09-27 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Monitoring the Impact of COVID 19 in Myanmar Agricultural production and rural livelihoods in two irrigation schemes June 2020 survey round written by Lambrecht, Isabel and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2020-08-14 with total page 9 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This policy note provides evidence of the immediate impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on farming communities in Myanmar’s Central Dry Zone using baseline data from January 2020 and follow-up phone survey data. The first round of the phone survey was conducted between 10 and 21 June 2020 and inquired about the effects of COVID-19 on agricultural production and other livelihood sources from February to May 2020. In total, 1,070 male and female respondents from 605 households in 30 communities were interviewed. The sample for the phone survey covers all nonirrigation households and all women-adult-only households (WHH), as these categories of households were few in the baseline survey, and a randomly selected subsample of the dual-adult irrigation households covered in the baseline.

Download or read book Agricultural livelihoods and food security in the context of COVID 19 written by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 2021-05-19 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The assessment presented in this report uses livelihood survey data collected by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) from June to November 2020 in 11 highly food insecure countries. These efforts have led to the assembly of the survey data into one of the largest datasets so far used to look at coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related impacts on rural and agricultural livelihoods. It contributes to the growing body of evidence by focusing specifically on agricultural households, and sheds new light on the impact of COVID-19 and other shocks on the lives and livelihoods of these households. All countries selected appear in the list of “food crisis countries” published annually by the multi-agency Food Security Information Network (FSIN). These countries are Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Yemen and Zimbabwe.This report shows that the enforcement of COVID‑19‑related restrictions has reduced the incomes of agricultural producers as well as their food security with an impact comparable to that of major shocks, such as conflict or natural disasters. The overall decrease in income was particularly high for vegetable and fish producers whose products are highly perishable, highlighting how movement restrictions and consequent transportation delays of agricultural goods affected these groups the most, causing severe losses that could not be compensated once restrictions were lifted. Livestock producers were also among the most severely affected by the restrictions, however the impact for many of them has been cushioned though either delayed sales or through asset depletion, which can lead to a cycle of poverty. As the pandemic and associated restrictions continue, both supply and demand‑side measures are necessary.This report is 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 do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.

Download or read book Poverty and Food Insecurity During COVID 19 written by Derek Headey and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Myanmar had one of the lowest confirmed COVID-19 caseloads in the world in mid-2020 and was one of the few developing countries not projected to go into economic recession. However, macroeconomic projections are likely to be a poor guide to individual and household welfare in a fast-moving crisis that has involved disruption to an unusually wide range of sectors and livelihoods. To explore the impacts of COVID-19 disruptions on household poverty and coping strategies, as well as maternal food insecurity experiences, this study used a telephone survey conducted in June and July 2020 covering 2,017 mothers of nutritionally vulnerable young children in urban Yangon and rural villages of Myanmar's Dry Zone.Stratifying results by location, livelihoods, and asset-levels, and using retrospective questions on pre-COVID-19 incomes and various COVID-19 impacts, we find that the vast majority of households have been adversely affected from loss of income and employment. Over three-quarters cite income/job losses as the main impact of COVID-19 - median incomes declined by one third and $1.90/day income-based poverty rose by around 27 percentage points between January and June 2020. Falling into poverty was most strongly associated with loss of employment (including migrant employment), but also with recent childbirth. The poor commonly coped with income losses through taking loans/credit, while better-off households drew down on savings and reduced non-food expenditures. Self-reported food insecurity experiences were much more common in the urban sample than in the rural sample, even though income-based and asset-based poverty were more prevalent in rural areas. In urban areas, around one quarter of respondents were worried about food quantities and quality, and around 10 percent stated that there were times when they had run out of food or gone hungry. Respondents who stated that their household had lost income or experienced food supply problems due to COVID-19 were more likely to report a variety of different food insecurity experiences.These results raise the concern that the welfare impacts of the COVID-19 crisis are much more serious and widespread than macroeconomic projections would suggest. Loss of employment and casual labor are major drivers of increasing poverty. Consequently, economic recovery strategies must emphasize job creation to revitalize damaged livelihoods. However, a strengthened social protection strategy should also be a critical component of economic recovery to prevent adversely affected households from falling into poverty traps and to avert the worst forms of food insecurity and malnutrition, particularly among households with pregnant women and young children. The recent second wave of COVID-19 infections in Myanmar from mid-August onwards makes the expansion of social protection even more imperative.