COVID-19: Maintaining the Global Access to Fertilizers Is Essential for Food Security
While amidst the COVID situation, food is officially recognized worldwide as an “essential good” for international trade and supply chain measures, it bears emphasis that the production of most of our food is originated on the farm, according to the International Fertilizer Association (IFA). Before impacting the end–consumption, supply chain disruptions affect farmers at the very beginning of the food production process: food availability starts at the farm level.
This means that current shortages in essential inputs, such as fertilizers, will have measurable consequences on planting, crop development, and the harvest later this year. They will also impact farmers’ income and hence their ability to invest in inputs for the subsequent planting and harvest season(s). Governments, in cooperation with the fertilizer value chain and farmers, need to ensure that the current health crisis does not lead to a food crisis, by maintaining the adequate access to and affordability of fertilizer and other essential inputs. This can only be achieved by prioritizing farm inputs as well as categorizing supply chain services as essential and indispensable. Indispensable logistics include all activities that enable the flow of agriculture inputs, such as transportation, warehousing, procurement, packaging, inventory management and distribution and retail services as well as all necessary quality controls.
It is further noteworthy, that the insufficient quantity of a single essential plant nutrient affects plant growth and thus the yield, as well as soil health. In vulnerable regions, such as Sub-Saharan Africa where soils are already depleted and desertification is a constant threat, the additional reduced access to fertilizers risks to further damage the soils and worsen the already fragile economic situation of farmers.
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