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Add to Preferred SourcesPoor farmers can obtain significant economic gains and other benefits by implementing modified farming practices aimed at boosting their ability to cope with disasters and natural shocks, according to a new FAO study.
Many of the “disaster resistant” farming innovations – assessed by FAO through multi-year trials on over 900 farms in 10 different countries – are within easy reach of poor farmers and do not require substantial investment. What is more, these innovations did not merely act as a buffer against disaster damages – in most cases, they significantly improved farm yields and financial gains even in the absence of any natural disasters.
Examples include a range of low-cost options for disaster risk reduction that range from nature-based solutions, such as planting mangrove to protect coastal areas from floods, to the use of flood-resistant rice varieties, to shifting to the installation of rooftop water collection and irrigation systems.
“The study makes clear that in most cases, disaster risk reduction (DRR) efforts on the farm make good economic sense: that investing in DDR early can save many dollars that would otherwise be spent on post-disaster rehabilitation,” said Dominique Burgeon, Director of FAO Emergency and Resilience Division, in the foreword to the report. “Moreover, farm-level DRR good practices are often “no-regret” measures – meaning that they prove effective in providing added benefits even in the absence of hazards”.
FAO’s study is intended to guide farmers in making choices to manage risk as well as to inform policy-makers.
In particular, the study reveals that the good practices assessed have considerable potential to reduce the damages wrought on developing world agriculture by smaller-scale, lower-intensity disasters. While capturing less attention than large-scale disasters, hazards like dry spells or cold spells recur more frequently and represent a constant and significant problem for the 2.5 billion people on the planet who rely on small-scale agriculture.
“Disaster risk reduction at farm level: Multiple benefits, no regrets” was presented at a side event at the start of the UNISDR Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction.
Original source: FAO
Published on 13 May 2019