Disaster events becoming more frequent and severe as well impact is also expected to worsen.
The year 2023 marked as warmest decade on record, followed by unprecedented extreme weather events and large-scale disasters.
A report by the FAO found that the frequency of extreme disaster events has risen significantly over the past 50 years.
The 1970s saw approximately 100 disaster events per year.
In the last 20 years, that number went up to about 400, globally.
Globally, the agriculture sector faces growing threats from hazards such as flooding, water scarcity, drought, and environmental degradation.
In Pakistan, exceptional monsoon rainfalls in 2022 led to nearly $4 billion in damages to the agricultural sector.
In the U.S., the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimated over $21.4 billion in crop and rangeland losses in 2022.
Data from 88 Post-Disaster Needs Assessments surveys conducted from 2007 to 2022 in 60 countries indicated that agricultural losses constituted an average of 23% of the overall impact of disasters across all sectors.
A comprehensive global estimate of economic losses across all sectors is unavailable.
PDNAs revealed that more than 65% of losses attributed by drought.
While floods, storms, cyclones, and volcanic activities each accounted for roughly 20%.
Findings indicated that estimated losses in these sub-sectors have been gradually increasing over the past three decades.
The total loss from extreme events over the past 31 years amounted to approximately $3.8 trillion, averaging about $123 billion per year.
Losses across major crop and livestock product groups exhibited increasing trends.
Over the past three decades, estimated losses in cereals averaged 69 million tonnes annually.
Losses in fruits and vegetables, along with sugar crops, averaged 40 million tonnes each annually.
Meats, dairy products, and eggs experienced an estimated loss of 16 million tonnes per year.
Asia bore the largest share of economic losses (45%), while Africa, Europe, and the Americas displayed similar orders of magnitude.
Oceania experienced the lowest total losses.
In absolute terms, high-income countries, lower-middle-income countries, and upper-middle-income countries reported higher losses.
In low-income countries and Small Island Developing States experienced lower levels.
However, when considering losses relative to agricultural value added, low-income countries suffered losses more than double those of upper-middle-income countries on average.
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