Last updated on May 3, 2020
This weekend, India’s Economic & Political Weekly–a peer-reviewed policy journal which, over time, has published articles by the likes of Abhijit Banerjee, Angus Deaton, Esther Duflo, and so on–published a piece by Tom Reardon, Ashok Mishra, Chandra S.R. Nuthalapathi, David Zilberman, and me on the prospective impacts of COVID-19 on Indian food supply chains.
Here is the abstract:
COVID-19 has created high transaction costs and uncertainty in India’s transformed food supply chains, putting food security at risk as 92% of food consumption in India is purchased, predominantly from the private sector. Government faces the challenge of marshalling resources between mitigating the impending food crisis and containing the contagion as the risk of sociopolitical tensions looms large. It is recommended that the government concentrate on sustaining the food supply chains towards eventual rebound, recognising that government food distribution cannot replace even a tenth of the market.
Here is a link to the full piece.