Global Food Policy Report 2021 : International Food Policy Research Institute
Recently, the International Food Policy Research Institute has published a Global Food Policy Report. This year the report on the theme “Transforming Food Systems after COVID-19” has been released.
This report focuses specifically on the vulnerable groups of low and medium income countries around the world, as well as analyzing policy responses and their effects.
The report describes how livelihoods, food security and nutrition have been affected by COVID-19; how and why its effects are different in different regions and countries; and now our food systems and food supply chains need to better tolerate such a setback in the coming years.
Key facts regarding India:
- Due to the COVID-19 lockdown, the operation of the school and day care center was closed, due to which the availability of nutritious food products was severely affected. People started using low value foods in place of expensive nutritious foods like fruits and vegetables etc.
- The Mid-Day Meal Program comprising about 80% of primary school children in India was adversely affected due to COVID-19
- According to the report, India’s rapid policy actions and effective coordination among national, state and local institutions provided protection to health and nutrition programs from initial setbacks. This success reflects India’s decades of investment in social-security schemes.
- While e-food services saw a growth of 7 percent year-on-year, convenience stores saw a decline of 9.8 percent. Single unit grocery stores saw a slight increase of 1.3 percent over the previous year.
International Food Policy Research Institute:
- The International Food Policy Research Institute is an international agricultural research center established in the 1970s to improve the understanding of national agricultural and food policies in order to adopt innovations in agricultural technology.
- IFPRI aims to shed more light on the role of agriculture and rural development in a country’s broad development path, as well as its mission to provide research-based policy solutions that can reduce poverty and ultimately hunger and malnutrition.
- IFPRI was created in 1975 as a non-profit corporation in Colombia.
Source – Indian Express
