The number of natural disasters has reached to a level never before seen by humanity

The number of natural disasters has tripled over the past three decades, severely impacting agriculture and food security, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has reported.

In a report headlined “The impact of disasters and crises on agriculture and food security”, the FAO indicates that weather-related natural disasters occur three times more often today than in the 1970s and 1980s. While in the 1970s about 40 droughts and storms were recorded each year, in the 2010s this figure had risen to 150. A similar trend was observed in relation to floods whereby in the 1970s there were 30 floods per year and in the 1980s this number doubled to 60, in the 2000s the average grew to 180, reaching 246 such events in 2006.

All weather-related events have a hazardous impact on the economy, agriculture, and food security. The total global amount of losses resulting from natural disasters in the last decade was US$170 billion but between 2011 and 2017 this reached over US$300 billion, demonstrating a significant increase. Yet, the poorest and low- and middle-income states were definitely more badly affected than developed countries, incurring US$108 billion in losses from 2008 to 2018.

Furthermore, agriculture (crops, livestock, forestry, fishery, and aquaculture) is the economic sector most vulnerable to natural disasters. Between 2008 and 2018 it absorbed 63% of all the damage caused by natural disasters while other sectors such as industry, commerce, and tourism accounted for only 37%. It is worth noting that agriculture is the main economic activity in the case of many low- and middle-income states, thus natural disasters impact upon them much more than rich countries.

The report also found that the impact of natural disasters on agriculture is more serious for women than it is for men, as women working in agriculture face more structural challenges that result from gender inequality.

The losses in agriculture not only affect the economy but seriously disrupt food security, making the diet of many people around the world less calorific and less nutritionally valuable. The FAO estimates that between 2008 and 2018 the total loss of production of crops and livestock in low- and middle-income countries was 6.9 trillion kilocalories per year which represents the annual calorie intake of 7 million adults. The diet of people impacted by natural disasters is not only less energizing but also less nutritious which leads to so-called hidden hunger which is when, although people eat enough calories, the food contains insufficient amounts of vitamins and minerals.