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The impact of disasters and crises on agriculture and food security – 2021

Published by:
Online Location
http://www.fao.org/3/cb3673en/cb3673en.pdf
Publication date
25/03/2021
Number of Pages
245
Language:
English
Type of Publication:
Studies
Focus Region:
Global
Focus Topic:
Agricultural Value Chains / Agri-Businesses
Climate / Weather / Environment
Health & Diseases
Nutrition / Food Systems
Gender / Youth / Social Inclusion
Type of Risk:
Natural disasters
Type of Risk Managment Option:
Risk coping
Risk assessment
Risk reduction/mitigation
Commodity:
Crops
Fisheries & Aquaculture
Livestock
Author
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

ABSTRACT

On top of a decade of exacerbated disaster loss, exceptional global heat, retreating ice and rising sea levels, humanity and our food security face a range of new and unprecedented hazards, such as megafires, extreme weather events, desert locust swarms of magnitudes previously unseen, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Agriculture underpins the livelihoods of over 2.5 billion people – most of them in low-income developing countries – and remains a key driver of development. At no other point in history has agriculture been faced with such an array of familiar and unfamiliar risks, interacting in a hyperconnected world and a precipitously changing landscape. And agriculture continues to absorb a disproportionate share of the damage and loss wrought by disasters. Their growing frequency and intensity, along with the systemic nature of risk, are upending people’s lives, devastating livelihoods, and jeopardizing our entire food system. This report makes a powerful case for investing in resilience and disaster risk reduction – especially data gathering and analysis for evidence informed action – to ensure agriculture’s crucial role in achieving the future we want.