Rome: Annual occurrence of disasters is now more than three times that of the 1970s and 1980s, according to a new Food and Agriculture Organization report released on Thursday.
Relative to agriculture, industry, commerce and tourism taken as a whole, on its own agriculture absorbs the disproportionate share of 63 percent of impact from disasters, with the least developed countries (LDCs) and low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) bearing the major brunt of these scourges.
Thus, between 2008 and 2018, the impacts of disasters cost the agricultural sectors of developing country economies over $108 billion in damaged or lost crop and livestock production.
Such damage can be particularly detrimental to livelihoods of smallholder and subsistence farmers, pastoralists, and fishers.
Over the analyzed period, Asia was the most hard-hit region, with overall economic losses adding up to a staggering $49 billion, followed by Africa at $30 billion, and Latin America and Caribbean at $29 billion.
"Disaster impact is extensive and requires immediate efforts to better assess and understand its dynamics in order to mitigate its costs," said FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu in a press release issued on Thursday.
"Increased risk exposure has become the ‘new normal', and the impact of climate change is set to exacerbate these challenges even further," he added.
The FAO chief highlighted that the 2021 edition made a powerful case for investing in resilience and risk reduction, by revealing the scale of the disaster impact on various agricultural sectors, as well as provided essential knowledge and a solid basis to coordinate effective global action.
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