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PR, IFPRI3; CRP4; 2 Promoting Healthy Diets and Nutrition for all, PHND; A4NH, CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH), Measures to slow down the spread of Covid-19 have had profound effects on the food and nutrition security of poor and marginalised households and communities. This article provides an overview of the effects of Covid-19 on food systems across low- and middle-income countries using resilience and political economy lenses, before proposing approaches to build back resilient and equitable food systems. First, future interventions need to target structural issues that limit people’s agency in accessing nutritious and diverse food and production capital. Second, local innovation systems and institutions require investment to create a market environment that benefits domestic (small and medium) enterprises and agri‑food supply chain workers without jeopardising the environment. Third, interventions need to be informed by a diverse set of opinions that include the voices of the most marginalised.

PR, IFPRI5; CRP4; 2 Promoting Healthy Diets and Nutrition for all; UNFSS, PHND; A4NH, CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH), Measures that have been put in place across the world to slow down the spread of coronavirus (Covid-19) have had profound effects on food and nutrition security for those furthest behind. In the short run, many have experienced increased commodity prices, decreased access to food through schools and markets, disrupted agri-food supply chains, and loss of livelihoods. It is feared that these short-term effects will have a long-term impact on poverty, intergenerational malnutrition among vulnerable people (in particular, pregnant and lactating women), agricultural productivity reduction, and increased conflicts and displacement. How can we build back food systems better after Covid-19 so that they serve the needs of those furthest behind? To guide this decision, we employ the following concept of food systems resilience: ‘Capacity over time of a food system and its units at multiple levels, to provide sufficient, appropriate and accessible food to all, in the face of various and even unforeseen disturbances’. In applying this concept to the post-Covid-19 response, we supplement this with a political economy angle that critically examines whose resilience is and should be prioritised in humanitarian aid and donor-funded interventions. In line with international and Ireland’s commitments, the aim is to build back food systems that ‘leave no one behind’.

PR, IFPRI3; ISI; C Improving markets and trade; PIM 5 Value Chains; CRP2, MTID; PIM, 11 pages, CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)

Non-PR, IFPRI1; CRP2; C Improving markets and trade, MTID; PIM, CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM), Access to modern commercialization channels is key for smallholder farmers to be able to move away from subsistence farming and overcome poverty. However, achieving that goal is challenging for smallholders given their lack of appropriate managerial practices, production technology and infrastructure. This paper examines the effect of receiving training in two different entrepreneurial practices designed to link farmers to commercial markets: one direct aimed at the individual and farmer-association level and another indirect focused at the community level. We exploit an extensive panel dataset of staple bean farmers in Nicaragua who participated in a program run by a nongovernmental organization between 2007–2012. We find that the two market-linkage training activities had opposite effects on the commercialization of beans, especially on the intensive margin or volume of sales. While receiving direct training on entrepreneurial practices is positively associated with sales in commercial markets, training on municipality engagement (ME) activities is negatively associated. The market-linkage activities mainly affected entrant farmers as opposed to those already participating in commercial markets. We further find varying effects of the ME activities by plot size and leadership position. Additional results show that training activities that appear to work for bean producers do not necessarily work for other crop producers, and vice versa.

Poultry production is a valuable source of nutritious food and income and is considered a crucial part of global development. This is especially important for countries such as Bangladesh where levels of hunger and childhood stunting remain high. However, in many low- and middle-income countries poultry production remains dominated by small to medium scale enterprises operating with poor farm biosecurity associated with poultry and zoonotic disease risks. We aimed to characterize the structure of poultry production in Bangladesh in order to identify the underlying structural factors and resulting practices which create risk environments for emergence, persistence and transmission of infectious diseases. Using the concept of a production and distribution network (PDN), we conducted a review of the literature, 27 in-depth interviews with key-informants and stakeholders, and 20 structured interviews with poultry distributors to map the ways which poultry are raised, distributed and marketed in Bangladesh. Findings indicate that the PDN can be considered in the context of four major sub-networks, based on the types of chickens; broadly indigenous, cross-bred, exotic broiler, and layer chickens. These sub-networks do not exist in isolation; their transactional nodes - actors and sites - are dynamic and numerous interactions occur within and between the PDN. Our findings suggest that the growth in small and medium scale poultry enterprises is conducted within ‘fragile’ enterprises by inexperienced and poorly supported producers, many of whom lack capacity for the level of system upgrading needed to mitigate disease risk. Efforts could be taken to address the structural underlying factors identified, such as the poor bargaining power of producers and lack of access to independent credit and indemnity schemes, as a way to reduce the fragility of the PDN and increase its resilience to disease threats. This knowledge on the PDN structure and function provide the essential bas