34
B. Anindya and K. N. Sekhar
social distancing rules; shortages of animal feed, fertilisers, and pesticides affected
the production and supply logistics; alongside transportation bottlenecks. Several
countries in response to the pandemic took resort to temporary measures like Russia
and Kazakhstan levied a ban on wheat export while India and Vietnam imposed an
embargo on rice. The United Nations World Food Programme warned that approximately 265 million people could face acute food insecurity by the end of 2020, which
is twice that of 2019 [62]. Many pointed that the actual problem lies with food supply
disruption rather than food shortages.
In India, lockdown measures had a detrimental effect on the economy and even
on local food systems. India’s estimated total food grain production for 2019–20 is
292 million tonnes which is 6.74 million tonnes greater than the previous year [10].
But still, initially there was a huge surge in demand due to panic buying and hoarding
of food items fearing an acute shortage which created undue pressure on the supply.
The problem in the urban centres has been two-pronged: inadequate supply (both
fresh supplies from nearby and packaged goods) and unaffordability by the poorer
section who are reeling under joblessness as the prices of the food items shot up
steeply. This exposed that the modern cities who eye for comfort and ease of life
have largely ignored the need of being self-reliant in terms of food security and were
complacent being the ‘buyer’.
World Health Organization (WHO) on 30 January 2020 declared COVID-19 as
a public health emergency of international concern. Globally, as on 7 August 2020,
there have been 1.89 crores of confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 7.09 deaths,
across 213 countries; region-wise the number of cases is highest in America, followed
by Europe and South-east Asia and India registering 2,027,074 confirmed cases as
of now [64].
Though initially, the outbreak reached severe proportions in European nations like
Spain, Italy, France and England; at present the countries which have surpassed others
to attain the dubious distinction of being leaders are United States of America, Brazil,
India, Russia and South Africa. Except for USA, an interesting grouping of emerging
economies under the newly restructured BRICS confederacy can be seen including
China which was the first country to be hit by COVID-19. These populous developing
countries having high urbanising trend represent about 42% of the population, 23%
of GDP, 30% of the territory and 18% of the global trade indicates enough about the
situation [4]. If this pandemic trend continues for long, then prolonged lockdowns,
severe movement restrictions have to be imposed which would affect the longer food
chain supplies for sure and that would be a real test for the food resilience of the
urban areas.
2.3 Urban Sustainability: Issues and Perspectives
The world which is dominated by cities has to address the issue of urban sustainability. This process was initiated with Agenda 21 at Rio-de-Janeiro, 1992 and was
formalised at UN City Summit in Istanbul through Habitat Agenda, 1996. From
B. Anindya and K. N. Sekhar
social distancing rules; shortages of animal feed, fertilisers, and pesticides affected
the production and supply logistics; alongside transportation bottlenecks. Several
countries in response to the pandemic took resort to temporary measures like Russia
and Kazakhstan levied a ban on wheat export while India and Vietnam imposed an
embargo on rice. The United Nations World Food Programme warned that approximately 265 million people could face acute food insecurity by the end of 2020, which
is twice that of 2019 [62]. Many pointed that the actual problem lies with food supply
disruption rather than food shortages.
In India, lockdown measures had a detrimental effect on the economy and even
on local food systems. India’s estimated total food grain production for 2019–20 is
292 million tonnes which is 6.74 million tonnes greater than the previous year [10].
But still, initially there was a huge surge in demand due to panic buying and hoarding
of food items fearing an acute shortage which created undue pressure on the supply.
The problem in the urban centres has been two-pronged: inadequate supply (both
fresh supplies from nearby and packaged goods) and unaffordability by the poorer
section who are reeling under joblessness as the prices of the food items shot up
steeply. This exposed that the modern cities who eye for comfort and ease of life
have largely ignored the need of being self-reliant in terms of food security and were
complacent being the ‘buyer’.
World Health Organization (WHO) on 30 January 2020 declared COVID-19 as
a public health emergency of international concern. Globally, as on 7 August 2020,
there have been 1.89 crores of confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 7.09 deaths,
across 213 countries; region-wise the number of cases is highest in America, followed
by Europe and South-east Asia and India registering 2,027,074 confirmed cases as
of now [64].
Though initially, the outbreak reached severe proportions in European nations like
Spain, Italy, France and England; at present the countries which have surpassed others
to attain the dubious distinction of being leaders are United States of America, Brazil,
India, Russia and South Africa. Except for USA, an interesting grouping of emerging
economies under the newly restructured BRICS confederacy can be seen including
China which was the first country to be hit by COVID-19. These populous developing
countries having high urbanising trend represent about 42% of the population, 23%
of GDP, 30% of the territory and 18% of the global trade indicates enough about the
situation [4]. If this pandemic trend continues for long, then prolonged lockdowns,
severe movement restrictions have to be imposed which would affect the longer food
chain supplies for sure and that would be a real test for the food resilience of the
urban areas.
2.3 Urban Sustainability: Issues and Perspectives
The world which is dominated by cities has to address the issue of urban sustainability. This process was initiated with Agenda 21 at Rio-de-Janeiro, 1992 and was
formalised at UN City Summit in Istanbul through Habitat Agenda, 1996. From