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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The study also notes that the figure may be higher if systematic data on losses in the fisheries, aquaculture, and forestry subsectors were available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAgriculture 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,\u201d said FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu. \u201cRecurrent disasters have the potential to erode gains in food security and undermine the sustainability of agrifood systems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report reveals that, over the last three decades, disasters \u2014 defined as serious disruptions to the functioning of a community or society \u2014 inflicted the highest relative losses on lower and middle-income countries, up to 15% of their total agricultural GDP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":97411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_108372464460192_245495985553329":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[31,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n