Impacts of COVID-19 on agricultural and food systems worldwide and on progress to the sustainable development goals

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in immediate, serious, and worldwide human health issues. Necessary counter measures to the virus, e.g. quarantines and other restrictions, will remain in place for many months and have uncertain end dates. International efforts to control the virus by limiting human movement is inevitably causing economic shocks and social costs that will affect the functioning of agricultural and food systems worldwide. We are already witnessing the indirect effects of the pandemic on agricultural systems across the globe. Massively decreased demand for restaurant and commercial food services in combination with restrictions in labour, processing capacity and/or storage has led to farmers discarding their output en masse. Quarantine measures are severely affecting labour availability for key time-critical farming from sowing vegetable crops to picking fruit. As the crisis develops, these impacts are likely to become more widely and deeply felt in agricultural sectors and national economies. The significance and severity of the pandemic, and its likely impact on agriculture worldwide, calls for substantial reflection in both the short- and long-term. We need to understand the immediate consequences for the global network of agricultural and food systems on which we rely so heavily. We should track unexpected risks, weaknesses and systemic shifts to understand short-term effects as well as those that may be long-lasting or permanent.