Over the last 30 years, an estimated $3.8 trillion worth of crops and livestock production has been lost due to natural and human-made disasters, a new report released Friday by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) shows.
The loss corresponds to 5% of the annual global agricultural gross domestic product (GDP), according to the report, the first-ever global estimate of the impact of disasters on agriculture.
The study also notes that the figure may be higher if systematic data on losses in the fisheries, aquaculture, and forestry subsectors were available.
“Agriculture is one of the most highly exposed and vulnerable sectors in the context of disaster risk, given its profound dependence on natural resources and climate conditions,” said FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu. “Recurrent disasters have the potential to erode gains in food security and undermine the sustainability of agrifood systems.”
The report reveals that, over the last three decades, disasters — defined as serious disruptions to the functioning of a community or society — inflicted the highest relative losses on lower and middle-income countries, up to 15% of their total agricultural GDP.
Disasters also had a significant impact on Small Island Developing States, including countries like Fiji, the Bahamas, and Singapore, causing them to lose nearly 7% of their agricultural GDP, it added.
The report outlines three key priorities for action: Improving data and information on the impacts of disasters on all subsectors of agriculture, developing and mainstreaming multisectoral and multi-hazard disaster risk reduction approaches into policy and programming at all levels, and enhancing investments in resilience that provide benefits in reducing disaster risk in agriculture.
