US$123 billion agri losses each year from disasters - FAO

Over the last 30 years, an estimated US$3.8 trillion worth of crops and livestock production has been lost due to disaster events.This corresponds to an average loss of US$123 billion per year, or 5% of the annual global agricultural gross domestic product, according to a new report released by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO).The new flagship report &#039;The impact of disasters on agriculture and food security&#039; brings the first-ever global estimation of the impact of disasters on agricultural production focused on crops and livestock.It also notes that the figure may be higher if systematic data on losses in the fisheries, aquaculture, and forestry subsectors were available.Vulnerable The report stresses the need for urgently improving data and information on the impact of disasters on all subsectors of agriculture to create data systems that can serve as the foundation upon which effective action can be built and informed.“Agriculture is one of the most highly exposed and vulnerable sectors in the context of disaster risk, given its profound dependence on natural resources and climate conditions. Recurrent disasters have the potential to erode gains in food security and undermine the sustainability of agri-food systems,” said FAO director general QU Dongyu.According to the report, over the last three decades, disasters – defined as serious disruptions to the functioning of a community or society – inflicted the highest relative losses on lower and lower middle-income countries, up to 15% of their total agricultural GDP.It indicated that losses related to major agricultural products are showing increasing trends.“Thus, losses in cereals amounted to an average of 69 million tonnes per year in the last three decades, followed by fruits and vegetables and sugar crops, with each approaching average losses of 40 million tonnes per year."It said meats, dairy products and eggs showed an average estimated loss of 16 million tonnes per year.Global losses mask significant variability across regions, subregions and country groups.Marked increaseAccording to the report, Asia experienced by far the largest share of the total economic losses. Africa, Europe and the Americas also displayed a similar order of magnitude. However, losses in Asia only accounted for 4% of the agricultural added value, while in Africa they corresponded to nearly 8%.The FAO said disaster events have increased from 100 per year in the 1970s to around 400 events per year worldwide in the past 20 years.“Not only are disaster events increasing in frequency, intensity and complexity, but their impact is also expected to worsen as climate-induced disasters amplify existing social and ecological vulnerabilities.”The report highlights that when hazards manifest, they can produce cascading impacts across multiple systems and sectors. Underlying disaster risk drivers include climate change, poverty and inequality, population growth, health emergencies caused by pandemics, practices such as unsustainable land use and management, armed conflicts and environmental degradation.It said that farmers, particularly smallholder farmers, farming under rain-fed conditions are the most vulnerable actors in the agrifood systems and bear the brunt of disaster impacts.

US$123 billion agri losses each year from disasters - FAO

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-01

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US$123 billion agri losses each year from disasters - FAO

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-01

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