Students experienced various challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, e.g., distance learning, which caused limited faceto-face socialization opportunities with peers, leading to loneliness and anxiety. Loneliness and anxiety are known to be associated with psychological difficulties such as depression or lack of motivation, feelings of anxiety and difficulty concentrating on work, etc. COVID-19 also had an impact on the physical health of young people, such as back pain when sitting at the computer, eye pain and other difficulties. Although COVID-19 is no longer an issue, young people studying remotely during the pandemic are now our learners. Therefore, the aim of this study is to identify the emotional state of school youth at the moment and the impact of COVID-19 on their mental health, as researches show that three-quarters of all mental disorders appear before the age of 24. At this age, there are rapid changes in the body as well as the formation of personal identity. Based on these considerations, the Nordplus project ‘Methods for working with young people to ensure learning process resilienceʼ was initiated, in which surveys of students and teachers were organized, and six different educational institutions from three Baltic states participated in the study. Results show that students feel tired, anxious, and angry and have too heavy workload. Teachers think that physical activity, sports and help with studies could reduce the mental health problems of students, but for students, it is most important to spend more time with friends.

This article presents the results of studies on biological samples collected from 640 swabs taken from dogs and cats across various regions of the Republic of Kazakhstan. These samples were part of a monitoring study on the spread of coronavirus among domestic animals. Total RNAs were isolated using the magnetic sorption method with the ALPREP kit and subsequently analysed with the ALSENSE-SARS-CoV-2 RT-qPCR kit. Real-time RT-PCR analysis revealed that 104 samples tested positive within 22–37 amplification cycles. These positive samples were then cultured in Vero cell lines to confirm the presence of the virus. The biological activity of the resulting virus-containing suspension was determined using the Reed-Muench method. During cultivation, one viral isolate with a biological activity of 5.83±0.08 lg TCID50/ml was obtained. A microphotograph of the virus was taken using an electron microscope to determine its size, shape, and structure, which confirmed its morphology corresponding to the Coronaviridae family. The data obtained further indicate that domestic animals can suffer from and carry coronavirus. It is becoming increasingly evident that the virus can infect and replicate in the organs of various farm and domestic animals.

Covid-19 has affected the whole economy of Latvia, leading to various social and economic problems in the country. Social economy actors applying an innovative approach to solving social problems could make a significant contribution to improvement in social life, especially during the Covid-19 crisis and the post-crisis by supplying various services and products, helping the state to solve gaps that it cannot cope with without the help of the private or non-governmental sector. The research aims to describe the challenges faced by social economy actors in Latvia during Covid-19 and their responses to the crisis. The research employed case study analysis to describe the responses of 9 social economy organizations to mitigate the consequences of the crisis. The research found that Covid-19 had a negative impact on the performance of social economy actors faced by financial, organizational, social and psychological challenges, which overall did not significantly differ from those faced by other market actors in the particular situation. To solve the current problems in society and ensure their self-existence, social economy actors implemented an innovating strategy that focused on three priorities: new digital experiences, products and services in response to changes in customer behaviours and needs; development of new offers for a new or the current target group; new partnerships both within and outside the industry.

Individuals’ emotional well-being is determined by several factors, including the ability to cope with daily stress and the ability to cope with various daily challenges. Ability of the management to provide favourable psychoemotional and psychosocial conditions within their team is particularly important. However, managers do not always have the knowledge and skills to lead their teams. For the development of the methodology, a study of the scientific literature on topical issue like healthy workplace was performed. The empirical part of the study is based on the results of the survey conducted Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Sweden within the Nordplus project ‘Dealing with anxiety during a pandemic to enhance adult well-being’ on the impact of COVID-19, as well as the training that would be necessary for the managers of companies or organizations to promote emotional wellbeing in the workplace. The comparative study was conducted from the perspective of both employees and managers. The results show that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on workplace and the well-being of employees was not strong for the respondents, depending mainly on the job position, the size of the organization and country. Managers and employees consider various psychological trainings essential.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 has caused a global public health crisis. It has also severely damaged the world’s agrifood systems. Before the pandemic, agrifood systems were already vulnerable to many threats, including climate change, frequent extreme weather events, degradation of natural resources, economic slowdown, and regional conflicts (Fan, Wei, and Zhang 2020; Chen et al. 2020). The number of undernourished people worldwide had been increasing for five consecutive years to 690 million in 2019. More than 135 million people in 55 countries and territories were facing acute hunger, 144 million children younger than five were stunted, and 47 million children were wasted (FSIN 2020; FAO et al. 2020). The pandemic has increased poverty for the first time in 22 years—about 100 million more people have fallen into extreme poverty (FAO 2021b). Moreover, an additional 130 million people are threatened by acute severe food insecurity during the pandemic (WFP 2020a). A recent study has shown that the total number of children affected by stunting could increase by 2.8 million because of the pandemic (World Bank 2021). At the same time, the number of children experiencing wasting could increase by 6.7 million (UNICEF 2020; WFP 2020b). The livelihoods of vulnerable groups such as smallholder farmers, women, and migrant workers are threatened as they face losing jobs and incomes (FAO 2021b). Without effective measures, 840 million people in the world could face undernourishment and suffer from hunger by 2030, far from the “zero hunger” of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (IFPRI 2021b). As vaccines are gradually deployed globally, the pandemic is expected to be under control to some extent by the end of 2021. But we should not simply recover from the crisis; it is time to rethink how to build back better to achieve green, low-carbon, healthier, inclusive, and more resilient food systems. | Non-PR | IFPRI4; 3 Building Inclusive and Efficient Markets, Trade Systems, and Food Industry; DCA | DSGD

With rapid improvements in agricultural productivity and residents’ income, China has made remarkable advances in reducing hunger and malnutrition, as well as quality improvements in residents’ diets, witnessed by the progressively increasing consumption of fruits, eggs, aquatic products, and milk. However, new health and environmental challenges also arise alongside China’s dietary transition. Specifically, overweight and obesity have become increasingly prominent, and the incidence of diet-related chronic diseases has been on the rise. Among all these trends, the significant increase in meat consumption not only led to nutrition and health challenges, but also imposed intense pressure on resources and the environment. There are significant gaps between the current diet of Chinese residents and the recommended diets of the Chinese Dietary Guidelines and the EATLancet Commission. The current Chinese diet is mainly composed of grains, dominated by refined rice and noodles, insufficient coarse food grains, excessive meat, and insufficient consumption of whole grains, fruits, legumes, and milk. Incidence and mortality from diet-related chronic diseases in China would be significantly reduced if the “healthy diet” recommendations of the Chinese Dietary Guidelines, EAT-Lancet, Mediterranean and flexitarian (or low meat) diets were adopted. Deaths in China would be reduced by 1.15 million by 2030 if the population were following the Chinese Dietary Guidelines, or 1.8 million by shifting to the EAT-Lancet diet. At the same time, such a shift would significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions. Simulation results show that greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural activities would be reduced by 146-202 million metric tons if residents adopted one of the healthy diets, and by 60-116 million metric tons compared with food consumption at the 2020 level. The flexitarian diet would reduce greenhouse gas emissions the most. | Non-PR | IFPRI4; 3 Building Inclusive and Efficient Markets, Trade Systems, and Food Industry; DCA | DSGD

During recent decades, agriculture has developed rapidly in China, ensuring food security and enriching residents’ diets. At the same time, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the country’s agrifood systems have increased by only 16 percent in the past two decades and fell for two consecutive years in 2017 and 2018. The proportion of GHG emissions in the country’s food systems to the total GHG emissions dropped from 18.7 percent in 1997 to 8.2 percent in 2018. GHG emissions from the Chinese agrifood systems should not be ignored, neverthless. In 2018, GHG emissions from agrifood systems was still as high as 1.09 billion tons CO2eq1. While ensuring food security as the national top priority, measures such as improving agricultural technologies, reducing food loss and waste, and shifting dietary patterns must be adopted to reduce GHG emissions from agrifood systems. Improvements in agricultural technologies are the most effective standalone measures, but the combined three measures above have the most significant effect on GHG emission reduction. Projections show that the combined three measures can redcue GHG emissions by 47 percent in 2060 from the 2020 level. Land use, land use change, and forestry (LULUCF) play a key role as a carbon sink. The carbon sequestration from LULUCF was around 1.1 billion tons CO2eq in 2014. It can increase to 1.6 billion tons of CO2eq per year in 2060, thus LULUCF could completely offset GHG emissions from agrifood systems and still have a surplus capacity to sequester nearly 1 billion additional tons of CO2eq per year, well above the current level of net sequestration,contributing to overall carbon neutrality of China. | Non-PR | IFPRI4; 3 Building Inclusive and Efficient Markets, Trade Systems, and Food Industry; DCA | DSGD

The unsustainable agricultural production mode of “high input and high output” has imposed a heavy burden on China’s ecosystems, and severely restricted the sustainable development of the country’s agrifood systems. Taking long-term prevention and control of agricultural nonpoint-source pollution as the key approach can play an important role in upgrading country’s agriculture to circular and renewable agriculture-food-ecological system circulation. Currently, the five major sources of agricultural nonpoint-source pollution in China are livestock, poultry and aquaculture; chemical fertilizers; pesticides; crop residues; and waste plastic films. The Chinese government has issued corresponding policies and measures to carry out prevention and control at the source and end, which have achieved initial results. Its accurate grasp of policy direction and policy implementation provide lessons for other developing countries. Several years of treatments have resulted in remarkable reduction of nitrogen and phosphorus emissions from the livestock and poultry farming, but the pollutant emissions of the aquaculture are increasing, and the utilization rate of chemical fertilizers and pesticides is still relatively low compared with that of developed countries. China mainly relies on policies and legal means, and government subsidies to control agricultural nonpointsource pollution in the short term. However, more emerging options should be explored to establish a long-term mechanism to prevent and control agricultural nonpoint-source pollution and to transform the agrifood systems to become even greener, including property rights arrangements, interprovincial ecological compensation, green finance, and brand building for ecological agricultural products. | Non-PR | IFPRI4; 3 Building Inclusive and Efficient Markets, Trade Systems, and Food Industry; DCA | DSGD

Myanmar’s agrifood system has proven surprisingly resilient in the face of multiple crises—COVID 19, the military coup, economic mismanagement, global price instability, and widespread conflict—with respect to production and exports. Household welfare has not been resilient, however. High rates of inflation, especially food price inflation, have resulted in dietary degradation across all house hold groups, especially those dependent on casual wage labor. Among household members, young children experience the highest rates of inadequate dietary quality. Expanded social protection to improve access to better-quality diets for vulnerable households and individuals is therefore needed. Beyond the current political crisis, increased public and private investment in a more efficient and dynamic agrifood system should be a high priority. This will help drive down poverty rates and ensure access to healthy diets in the near term, while laying the foundation for sustained growth and struc tural transformation of the economy.

During the past several decades, significant progress has been made in reducing global hunger and malnutrition. The number of people suffering malnutrition, however, is rising again. The hidden costs and externalities in the agrifood systems are among the major contributors to various economic, social, and public health crises including food insecurity, zoonotic diseases, climate change, and malnutrition. Compounding the ongoing challenges facing the global agrifood systems, the COVID-19 pandemic, beginning in 2020, has intensified food insecurity and malnutrition in many parts of the world. Global food price indexes increased by more than 27.3 percent from the second half of 2020 to March 2021. Moreover, with many people losing their jobs during the COVID-19 outbreak and therefore facing a dramatic income decrease, the number of people confronted with food crises and extreme poverty increased significantly. Furthermore, the outbreak and prevalence of COVID-19 also increased regional inequalities in global food security, especially in Africa and the Middle East.