Natural disasters over the past 30 years have led to crop and livestock production losses totaling approximately $3.8 trillion, averaging $123 million per year, or 5% of the annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the world’s agriculture sector.
This information comes from a new report released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)..
“Agriculture cannot function without natural resources and is entirely dependent on climatic conditions, making it more susceptible to risks and more vulnerable to disasters than many other industries. Repeated disasters can undermine achievements in food security and reduce the resilience of agri-food systems,” said FAO Director-General QU Dongyu.
In relative terms, the countries with low and below-average income levels suffered the most significant losses from natural disasters. These events are defined as occurrences that seriously disrupt the lives of local populations or societies as a whole. Over the past three decades, these countries experienced losses of up to 15% of their total agricultural GDP. Small island developing states have also been severely affected, with losses equivalent to nearly 7% of their agricultural GDP.
In terms of food product groups, annual losses of cereals averaged 69 million tons, equivalent to the total production volume of France in 2021. Losses of fruits and vegetables, as well as sugar crops, amounted to 40 million tons per year. Regarding fruits and vegetables, their losses were equivalent to the total volume grown in Japan and Vietnam in 2021.
The losses of meat, milk, and eggs averaged 16 million tons per year, equal to the entire production volume of these products in Mexico and India in 2021.
Source: FAO.ORG