The achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 2 (Zero Hunger) became harder in 2020, particularly after the global spread of the new coronavirus (COVID-19). The new pandemic overlapped with other disasters and put more pressure on the local and national organizations in their fight against hunger. As a result, the UN expects an increase of the number of hungry people by at least 83 to 132 million people by the end of 2020, instead of a decrease. Hence, the 2020 setback in the fight against hunger may hamper the achievement of the Zero Hunger target of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. More efforts by the global community will be needed in the upcoming years. The current report highlights the major disasters that threaten global health and food security.

 COVID-19

As of October 31, up to 50 million people were infected, and more than one million people lost their lives in the fight with the new virus around the globe. Despite the high rate of recovering people, there is growing concern about the second wave of COVID-19, which already started in Europe and the USA. Many countries had started to ease the restrictions on people and goods movements after July, but with the current rise of infection rate, several countries are back to the initial emergency level of restrictions on movement and social distancing, such as in Germany.  

The new pandemic has a profound impact on the food supply chain at its all stages, including agricultural production, postharvest handling, processing, and consumption. A large number of farmers and food packaging workers were identified as COVID-19 positive in several countries such as USA, Brazil, England, Ghana and Germany. Besides, the production capacity of pork facilities decreased by approximately 25% in Europe in late April.  However, new hygiene standards have been put in place by now and the slaughter houses are working at full capacity again. As a result of illness, physical distancing requirements and travel restrictions, there was a considerable shortage of farm workers which forced some countries, such as France and the United Kingdom, to call unemployed people to work in the agriculture fields. 

Furthermore, dairy farmers in the USA and England were forced to dump a million liters of milk due to interrupted supply chain. The restrictions on people's movement impacted consumer's demand: They cannot go to restaurants and they prepare their meals at home. 

The impacts of COVID-19 on food supply chain may continue due to the second winter wave of COVID-19 that already started in Europe. Fortunately, several countries already announced that vaccines have been successfully tested in people and the companies are now ramping up production. With the availability of Covid-19 vaccines, the restrictions could be alleviated gradually until COVID-19 is under full control.

Desert locust

Ethiopia remains the epicenter of the locust movement in Africa. Despite of intensive control operations conducted in October, numerous swarms moved from central parts in Ethiopia to the northern highlands and reached Eritrea, Sudan, and southeastern Egypt. The swarms movement towards Somalia, in the south of Ethiopia, during October was even more extensive. This could form another epicenter of locust shifting towards the South African countries in the coming months. Red locust hoppers already reached Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe by the end of October, and could potentially disrupt the 2020/2021 agricultural season that is due to start in October/November and thereby affect household and national food security.

Winter breeding areas in Africa are mainly clustered in Sudan, Chad, and Mauritania. Along both sides of the red sea, the breeding continued particularly in Yemen and Saudi Arabia while the situation was calm in the other Asian countries.

FAO desert locust bulletin, the current situation during Novemebr 2020. Source: http://www.fao.org/ag/locusts/common/ecg/75/en/201112DLupdate.jpg

FAO desert locust bulletin, forecast until mid-December 2020. Source: http://www.fao.org/ag/locusts/common/ecg/75/en/201101forecast.jpg

Wind storms

In Iowa, USA, an extreme Derecho occurred on August 10.  The intense, widespread, and fast-moving windstorms caused extensive damage to homes, power lines and businesses. It damaged about one third of its maize crop. According to an USDA report, about 10% of the corn fields could not be harvested. USDA reduced its estimate of harvested acres from 13.6 to 12.7 million acres for Iowa. 

The massive damage of the maize fields in Iowa, USA, after the Derecho on August 10, 2020. (Source: https://agfax.com/2020/08/12/iowa-field-reports-derecho-devastates-state-infrastructure-crops/)

Between the end of August and mid-September 2020, the northeastern region of China had been hit by the three typhoons Bavi, Mesaq and Poseidon. They caused lodging of maize in parts of Heilongjiang and Jilin. By integrating ESA Sentinel-1 and -2, USA Landsat 8, Chinese Gaofen-1 and -2 and other satellite data, all cloudless pixels before and after the typhoon landfalls were analyzed applying big data methods in order to map lodging of maize field and estimate the impact on production. 

The three typhoons caused lodging in large areas of maize in the prefectures of Daqing, Suihua and Harbin in Heilongjiang province and Changchun, Songyuan and Jilin in Jilin province (Figure 4-8). The total area of lodged maize is 1.103 million hectares. Lodging area accounts for 23.8% of the total maize area of the six aforementioned prefectures and 10.4% of the total maize area of the Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces. Maize in other regions was not affected by the typhoon. UAV images were also used in maize lodging monitoring and compared to the damage maps obtained from the satellite data  (Figure 4-9). The UAV images confirmed the results obtained from the satellite data. 

Remote sensing monitoring results of maize lodging in Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces of China in 2020

Comparison between UAV aerial imagery (left) and a map generated from satellite data (right) of maize lodging in Zhaodong, Heilongjiang province. The lodged areas are shown in light brown on the  UAV and in red on the satellite image.

Floods & Typhoons

In Africa, a record rainfall has been marked in August over central and southern provinces of Chad. In the provinces the Lac and N’Djaména 388,000 people were affected. These heavy rains were followed by massive floods that destroyed 150,000 hectares of cultivated land and washed away 10,000 cattle. Also, the heavy rainfall affected central and eastern states in South Sudan and caused the overflow of the White Nile and Akobo Rivers. This impacted the lives and livelihoods of over 600,000 people. In September, severe floods following the heavy rains affected thousands of people and inundated large farmland areas in Senegal, Genua, Burkina Faso and Mauritania. In October, flash floods triggered by Deyr seasonal rains (October-December) in Somalia affected nearly 20,000 people, especially in the Banadir region and the capital of Mogadishu, Galmudug, South West and Jubaland states. These floods have inundated swathes of farmland, damaged property and disrupted livelihoods. Also in October, floods have affected North Kivu Province (the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo) following heavy rain on October 2. According to media reports, at least 15 people died in Sake Town after the overflow of the Mutahyo River. Dozens of people have been displaced, several houses flooded and schools and health centres were damaged.

In Asia, the flash floods that occurred in August over Afghanistan were responsible for the death of 145 people and injured 167 people. Also, agricultural land and public infrastructure were impacted. Over Pakistan, severe monsoon rains caused urban flooding on August 25. It resulted in 409 deaths, 402 injured and 305,151 fully or partially destroyed homes. In October, many regions in Laos and Cambodia were hit by severe floods which affected thousands of people. 

Both the Philippines and Vietnam faced several strong typhoons in October and November. They caused the displacement of several hundred thousands of people. In the Philippines, the authorities confirmed 67 deaths, 21 injured and 15 missing persons. In Vietnam, five people have been injured, and more than 325,000 people have been evacuated. In China, the historic amounts of rains received by the 2020 summer monsoon season were the main reason behind at least 21 large scale floods reported over the country. The massive floods started in September where Typhoon Maysak brought persistent rainfall to the Heilongjiang Province and flooded nearby areas. The rains submerged buildings in Harbin, the provincial capital, and caused rivers to overflow (e.g. Songhua River). Flood waves from the Mudan River also broke a dam located on the outskirts of Harbin.

The overflow in  Songhua River located in the Heilongjiang Province of northeast China on October 25, 2020 (right) compared to normal year (November 1, 2019, on the left). The river overflow was captured by two MODIS Terra satellite images displayed in false-color using infrared and visible light (bands 7-2-1) to better distinguish water from land. Vegetation appears green, water appears dark blue, and bare land appears brown (https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/147471/chinas-unrelenting-season-of-flooding#).

Drought

Severe drought conditions were observed in eastern Romania, eastern Bulgaria, and southern Ukraine, with further negative impacts mainly on maize and sunflowers. The drought conditions were also observed in north-eastern Greece, which is the main region of sunflower production. In central Ukraine, a prolonged precipitation deficit started to impact maize in September. The continuing deficit in precipitation in Western Europe (large parts of France, Belgium, Luxembourg, western Germany and the southern Netherlands) negatively affected the production of summer crops, mainly maize, sugar beet and potatoes in this region. In Ireland and parts of the United Kingdom, frequent and abundant precipitation since mid-August negatively affected the ripening and harvesting of spring and winter cereals. In Russia, the dry and hot conditions throughout July and August over the main growing region of sunflowers impacted the crop’s yield despite its tolerance to drought. Furthermore, moderate to extreme drought impacted the western United States. Record setting wild fires destroyed houses and 3.3 million hectare of forests.  In Argentina, South America, drought conditions in August-September impacted the seeding of sunflower and maize.

The Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) estimated globally for the months; July to September of 2020, https://spei.csic.es/map/maps.html#months=1#month=8#year=2020.

Sources:

https://kwwl.com/2020/08/12/mondays-derecho-damages-one-third-of-iowa-cropland/

http://www.fao.org/ag/locusts/en/info/info/index.html

http://www.fao.org/fao-stories/article/en/c/1319155/?utm_content=bufferd44d1&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

https://reliefweb.int/disasters.

https://www.severe-weather.eu/recent-events/destructive-wildfires-across-lebanon-mk/

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200908-fires-devour-large-agricultural-lands-in-western-syria/

https://www.arabnews.com/node/1732191/middle-east

https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/sites/jrcsh/files/jrcmars_bulletin_vol28_no09.pdf

https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/us-drought-monitor-update-september-22-2020#:~:text=moderate%20to%20extreme%20drought%20covers,increase%20from%20last%20week's%2032.8%25.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/10/13/climate/pantanal-brazil-fires.html

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/147471/chinas-unrelenting-season-of-flooding