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UN-ECONOMY-FOOD-DISASTER
From locusts to fires, agriculture faces growing threats: UN
PARIS, March 18, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – The increasing frequency and severity of
natural disasters ranging from massive fires to locust invasions is putting
food production systems at risk, the UN warned Thursday.
The annual occurrences of extreme events has tripled since the 1970s and
“their economic impact is relentlessly increasing”, the UN Food and
Agriculture Organization said in a report.
“At no other point in history have agri-food systems confronted such an
array of new and unprecedented threats, including megafires, extreme weather,
unusually large desert locust swarms, and emerging biological threats like
the COVID-19 pandemic,” the FAO said.
“These hazards not only take lives but also devastate agricultural
livelihoods and inflict cascading negative economic consequences… that can
endure for generations,” it added.
Describing the situation as the “new normal,” the UN report said that since
2000, disasters have taken “a drastic leap in frequency and have continued to
occur at a consistently high rate.”
As a result, in poor and developing countries, lost agricultural production
in the period 2008-18 came to $108.5 billion, FAO emergency and
rehabilitation director Dominique Burgeon told AFP.
“Those economic losses can devastate the lives and livelihoods of people,”
Burgeon, said noting that more than two billion people depend on agriculture
for their livelihoods.
The international community must invest more in preventive measures,
Burgeon said.
The pandemic, meanwhile, is “crippling agriculture and food systems” as
government measures to contain the coronavirus are disrupting demand and
supply, according to the report.
“Farmers are experiencing reduced access to inputs, labour and farmlands,
resulting in production loss, lower household income and nutrition declines,”
Burgeon said.
The UN is preparing a special food systems summit in September as it pushes
sustainable development goals through to 2030.
BSS/AFP/IJ/1810 hrs