ABSTRACT
As the COVID-19 outbreak continues to spread across the world, it is essential to address its existing and potential impacts on the agriculture and food sector, from the perspective of both food demand and supply. Ensuring the continued functioning of global and national food supply chains will be crucial in securing food supply, preventing a food crisis in countries that are already experiencing food and nutrition security challenges, and reducing the overall negative impact of the pandemic on the global economy. Although its share in total employment has fallen from 40.2 to 26.8% over the past two decades, agriculture provides livelihoods to more than one billion people worldwide and remains the backbone of many low-income countries, accounting for 60.4% of employment and contributing up to two-thirds of gross domestic product (GDP) in some of those countries. The sector is particularly important in African and Asian countries, where its employment share is 49 and 30.5%, respectively. It is a major source of employment for rural population and specially women, who account for 41.9% of the agricultural workforce in the developing world.
