Disaster Risk Reduction in Agriculture

The number and impact of disasters, particularly climate-induced disasters, is increasing significantly. It is crucial that all countries succeed in shifting from reactive disaster response approaches to more proactive prevention, preparedness and risk-informed anticipatory actions and investments, as agreed under the SFDRR.

Ecosystem services provided by farmers should be acknowledged, cost and translated into tangible returns for them. Policies must take into consideration the “buffer” role of agriculture in times of crisis. It absorbs environmental and economic shocks and related stress at the macro or microeconomic and environmental levels. Agriculture plays a critical role in ensuring that affected people maintain access to food and livelihoods during and after disasters, and in building resilience over time. These functions should be reflected in sectoral responsibilities and in budget allocation.

At the same time, there is a need to strengthen and ensure greater coherence between DRR and climate change adaptation (CCA) in agriculture. Joint actions across systems (local, national, regional and global) must be accelerated and scaled up, including through the alignment of national/local DRR strategies/plans with national climate action plans (Nationally Determined Contributions and National Adaptation Plans) and the SDG targets/commitments in order to leave no one behind.

Without strengthening the understanding and effective reduction and management of multiple risks in agrifood systems, the number of people and communities in need of humanitarian assistance, particularly in conflict and protracted crisis settings will further increase. In this context, it is critical to scale up DRR in humanitarian actions and to ensure that such interventions are gender and conflict-sensitive.

Over the last decade, the Official Development Aid (ODA) to agriculture-related prevention and preparedness has remained relatively low and reached only 3% of the total agriculture-related ODA to DRR and management. Yet, the investments in prevention and preparedness for agriculture pay off. Benefits from farm-level DRR good practices are on average 2.2 times higher than from previously used farming practices. In addition, the return on investment from risk-informed early action in agriculture is 7:1 i.e. for every USD 1 invested it has generated returns of up to USD 7 in avoided disaster losses and added benefits.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that risks are systemic. Policy development and implementation, resilience building as well as recovery interventions in agrifood systems must be risk-informed, evidence-based and geared towards system-wide solutions, within and across sectors and actors. This requires multi-sectoral, multi-hazard and preventive and anticipatory approaches that consistently integrate disaster, climate and crisis risk management to strengthen the resilience of people, their agricultural livelihoods and the ecosystems they depend on in a sustainable manner.