Overview
This project aimed to create greater policy awareness of future issues and a greater collaboration between policy and research on using new approaches to support the transformation of food systems. It built upon ACIAR small research activities WAC/2019/136 and WAC/2018/168.
The project team conducted a range of studies including a) primary survey of farmers to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on farming families in Bangladesh, Bihar, and Nepal Terai; b) the situation of groundwater use and aquifers in Bihar and West Bengal (India); c) impact of public policies on the production of rice and wheat (India); d) analysis of the consumption of blue foods in South Asia and its potential contribution to the agricultural economy and nutrition; e) analysis of intrahousehold disparities in the consumption of nutritious foods (Bangladesh); and f) the future of food production and farmers in Eastern Gangetic Plains (EGP) and other parts of the developing world. The key results discussed in this report are:
- Occupational diversification does not always lead to greater resilience to economic shocks
- Groundwater depletion is emerging as a problem in some parts of West Bengal
- The impact of price support on the production of rice and wheat in India
- Blue foods can play a major role in the shift towards a healthy and sustainable food system in EGP
- Smallholder agriculture will continue to be the mainstay of food production in South Asia
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