Disrupted harvests: how Ukraine – Russia war influences global food systems – a systematic review

ABSTRACT

Amid Ukraine’s geopolitical turmoil, a ripple effect is echoing across global agricultural and food systems – a phenomenon with far-reaching implications for producers, traders, and consumers across the globe. This systematic study delves into this intricate interaction, examining scholarly literature to determine the magnitude and complexities of the war’s impact on global agri-food systems. Utilizing a rigourous methodology, we screened 236 articles from the Web of Science database as of March 2023, narrowing the corpus to 62 significant publications that meet comprehensive eligibility criteria. The war affected all food security dimensions, but the most dramatic impact was on food access. Indeed, the decrease in domestic food production and productivity; the damage to production assets, food production, and food stocks; the increase in production input prices; changes in land use and land degradation; and labour shortage in rural areas reduced food supply and availability, especially that of cereals. The decrease in food availability led to increased food prices and inflation, which, combined with the disruption of agri-food trade, markets, and supply chains, affected food access, especially for the poor and vulnerable people and groups. Effects on food utilization are mainly seen in the decrease in diet quality and dietary diversity. The war also affected the stability dimension, mainly owing to the volatility of food prices and the uncertainty of the future food supply. Similarly, the war has affected all the dimensions of food system sustainability (viz. environmental, social, economic, political). However, some phenomena have particularly affected the socio-economic dimension, such as food insecurity and malnutrition, poverty and vulnerability, and migration and displacement. Therefore, it is imperative to use evidence-based strategies and policies that are not only efficient and effective but also sustainable. Consequently, conducting extensive research into the conflict’s medium- and long-term consequences is crucial, especially in the context of developing countries, which have hitherto been largely overlooked in prior research.

KEYWORDS:

• Ukraine
• war
• food system
• food security
• agricultural policy
• systematic review

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Open Access funding provided by Qatar National Library.

Notes on contributors

Hamid El Bilali

Dr. Hamid El Bilali graduated in agronomy from the Hassan II Institute of Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine (IAV Hassan-II) in Rabat, Morocco. He holds an MSc in organic agriculture (CIHEAM-Bari, 2004) and a Ph.D. in agricultural sciences (University of Bari, Italy; 2008). He is currently a research scientist at the International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM-Bari). He is the author of several scientific publications relating to sustainable food systems, food security, and sustainable food consumption and production (e.g. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems; Advances in Nutrition and Food Sciences; Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems and Community Development; Journal of Food Security; American Journal of Rural Development), and member of the editorial boards of numerous journals.

Tarek Ben Hassen

Dr. Tarek Ben Hassen is an Associate Professor of Policy, Planning, and Development at the Department of International Affairs at Qatar University. He holds an MSc. in Management of Innovation (University of Quebec in Chicoutimi, Canada; 2006) and a Ph.D. in Urban Studies (specialized in economic geography) (University of Quebec in Montreal, Canada; 2012). His research falls into the subfield of economic geography, with an emphasis on the study of the dynamics of sustainability and innovation within the food systems. He has several publications in reputed international journals (e.g. Appetite, Foods, Environmental Science and Pollution Research, British Food Journal, Journal of Agriculture and Food Research, Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, Waste Management & Research, and Sustainability).