T

he United Nations Food Agriculture Organization (FAO) has called on developing countries to intensively mainstream efforts centering on disaster risk reduction (DRR) into their agriculture policies, as various natural hazards during the past decade have significantly hampered their attempts to achieve food security.

In a report released on Tuesday during the third World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR) in the northern Japanese city of Sendai, FAO said that many developing countries had made only limited progress in mainstreaming DRR strategy into the agriculture sector following the issuance of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA), which has been the international framework for disaster risk reduction since 2005.

'€œMany countries have national platforms, legislation and policies on disaster risk reduction, but few address agriculture and food and nutrition security with sector'€“specific DRR policies and objectives,'€ the report says.

'€œReducing risks and building resilience within agriculture requires a policy environment that is conducive to the full mainstreaming of DRR within the sector.'€

FAO data show that agriculture employs over 30 percent of people in developing countries such as Bolivia, Cambodia, India and Indonesia, and over 60 percent of the labor force in Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali and Uganda. Many of these farmers are vulnerable to the direct impact of disasters, particularly floods and drought.

Reviewing 78 post'€“disaster needs assessments (PDNAs) undertaken in the aftermath of medium to large'€“scale disasters in 48 developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America between 2003 and 2013, the FAO report shows that the 78 disasters caused a total of US$140 billion in damage and losses in all sectors, of which $30 billion, or 22 percent, was in the agriculture sector and subsectors.

Comparing yield decreases during and after disasters with yield trends in 67 countries affected by at least one medium- to larger-scale event between the same period, the report also found that the disasters caused $70 billion in damages to crops and livestock, with Asia the most affected region after suffering estimated losses of up to $28 billion.

'€œ[It turns out] that those who are the most food insecure are also those who live in the most disaster-prone countries,'€ FAO director for emergency and rehabilitation Dominique Burgeon said on Tuesday in a session during the WCDRR conference, which is scheduled to issue a new international guideline to replace the 10-year-old HFA.

Adopted by 168 countries, the HFA outlines five priorities for action and offers guiding principles and practical means for achieving resilience toward disasters, which cost the world an average US$300 billion in economic losses annually.

As one of the world'€™s most disaster-prone countries, Indonesia has also been struggling to help farmers manage and survive the impact of disasters as well as maintain food sufficiency.

In December last year, for example, prolonged flooding in thousands of hectares of farming areas in Java and Sumatra resulted in harvest failures and damage to farmland.

To strengthen the domestic food supply, President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s administration has vowed to improve farming infrastructure by, among other things, establishing 49 new dams over five years to improve irrigation for local farmers.

National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) head Syamsul Maarif, who leads the Indonesian delegation at the conference, said the government'€™s massive infrastructure spending would benefit ongoing efforts to promote DRR, including in the agriculture sector.

'€œNew dams and better irrigation systems will help [farmers] avoid floods during the rainy season and droughts during the dry season. Such infrastructure developments will reduce disaster risk and maintain food security at the same time,'€ he said.

Bangladesh, one of the world'€™s most densely populated countries, meanwhile, has implemented another strategy to manage food security amid continuous threats of floods in the South Asian country, which is situated in the low-laying Ganges River delta. '€œWe have developed a type of rice that can be grown during winter and harvested before the monsoon,'€ Bangladesh ambassador and permanent representative to the UN Offices in Geneva Shameem Ahsan said.