Agrometeorological strategies for reducing impacts of natural disasters in agriculture

Abstract

Over the past few decades, there is an increasing intensity and frequency of natural disasters around the world with severe socio-economic impacts, especially in the developing world. General information on natural disasters including the definitions, types, and incidence of natural disasters during 1970 to 2014 was pro­vided. Agricultural production is highly dependent on weather, climate and water availability and is adversely affected by the weather- and climate-related disasters. Impacts of droughts, cyclones, floods, forest and bush fires on agriculture, range­land and forestry were described with suitable examples. Failure of rains and occur­rences of natural disasters could lead to crop failures, food insecurity, famine, loss of property and life, mass migration and decline in national economy. Recognizing the increasing impact of disasters and their complexity in many parts of the world, the Member Countries of the United Nations came together to enhance the glo­bal efforts to strengthen disaster risk reduction to reduce losses of lives and assets from disasters worldwide and the post-2015 environment for reducing disaster risk will be shaped by three critical United Nations-led negotiations that will conclu­de this year. Important aspects of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduc­tion (SFDRR), which was adopted at the Third World United Nations Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR-III) held in Sendai, Japan, in March 2015, were described. The growing concern with the possible impact of natural disasters and extreme events on agriculture and forestry has created new demands for informa­tion from, and assessment by agrometeorologists. Agrometeorological strategies for reducing the impacts of natural disasters in agriculture such as improved use of climate and weather information and forecasts, early warning systems, reorienting and recasting meteorological information, fine-tuning of climatic analysis and pre­sentation in forms suitable for agricultural decision-making and helping marginal farmers cope with the adverse impact of natural disasters were described.