FAO’s information bank

FAO is has a growing range of information resources on COVID-19, available through its dedicated website. Selected information of particular relevance to COLEACP’s members and beneficiaries includes:

• POLICY BRIEF on COVID-19 and smallholder producers’ access to markets. Immediate impacts tend to be more severe for high-value commodities (perishable products), which are often produced by smallholder farmers. Several countries are putting in place a variety of measures to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on smallholder producers. This brief builds on lessons learned in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone during the 2014 Ebola virus disease epidemic and during the 2007–2008 global food prices volatility crisis.
• BIG DATA TOOL providing real-time information on value chains and food security to help countries mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 on food and agriculture. This open-access tool gathers, organises and analyses daily information on the impact of the pandemic on food and agriculture, value chains, food prices, food security and measures undertaken.
• CROP CALENDAR providing FAO recommendations on planting and harvesting during the COVID-19 pandemic, by commodity and country. It focuses on cereals and staples, but does include some horticultural crops: bananas, beans, chillies and peppers, potatoes, pumpkins and squashes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, yams.
• OPINION PIECE by FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu urging countries to keep trade routes open and supply chains alive, published by World Economic Forum.