FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED
NATIONS (FAO) REGIONAL OFFICE FOR AFRICA, ACCRA - TEL. 675000/7010930

PRESS RELEASE NO. 01/13

COAG meeting opens today in Rome

FAO WARNS THAT DAMAGE TO AGRICULTURE FROM STORM-RELATED DISASTERS MUST BE
REDUCED

Rome, 26 March 2001 -- The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO),
citing the need to reduce the impact of storm-related disasters on
agriculture, proposed a disaster management strategy, in a report presented
to the 16th session of its Committee on Agriculture, which opened today.

"The most immediate and visible impact of storms on agriculture is the
damage to standing crops, livestocks, household property, production assets
and physical infrastructure. This may result in food supply shortages at
household, community, and sometimes national levels," the report says.

Storm-related disasters have increased in frequency and intensity during the
past decade. In tropical areas, the devastation caused by hurricanes rose
dramatically during the 1990s, due in part to the increased population
living in storm-prone areas, according to FAO.

"The most recent World Disaster Report of the International Federation of
the Red Cross says, that during 1990-1999 wind storms and flood-related
disasters together accounted for 60 percent of the total economic loss
caused by natural disasters."

"The economic cost of damage to crops and infrastructure from floods in
Central America in 1998 was estimated at $8.5 billion and that in
Mozambique (February-March 2000) at
$1 billion, reflecting a substantial dent in the GDP of the countries
affected," the report indicates.

"Apart from the immediate devastation - death, injury, hunger and
starvation - disasters disproportionately affect the poor, making them even
poorer by destroying the few assets that they possess. Storms also destroy
expensive long-term development projects, such as communication
infrastructure, irrigation and other farming infrastructure. Because of
this, storm-related disasters are a drain on development efforts," FAO says.

Each vulnerable country or region needs a strategy that incorporates
long-term measures to reduce vulnerability to storm-related disasters.
Measures should be integrated in the overall development program of the
country, and in particular for storm and flood-prone areas. In addition,
the strategy should include an early-warning and storm-forecasting system
and a preparedness plan for relief and rehabilitation.

"A long-term development programme for reducing agricultural vulnerability
to storm-related disasters should be developed on the basis of land-use
evaluations, vulnerability and risk assessments, inventory of traditional
community land-management practices and local coping strategies, as well as
an assessment and identification of crop, livestock, fisheries and forestry
practices and farming systems suitable for vulnerable areas," the report
says.

There are many examples of land-use planning, agricultural, forestry and
fisheries practices that increase resilience and reduce susceptibility to
storm damage, if applied in an appropriate context. Examples include the
introduction of more storm-resistant crops, such as tannia, ginger,
pineapple, roots and tubers, diversified cropping systems, including
conservation tillage, that offer insurance against crop losses,
salt-resistant agriculture, forestry windbreaks or shelter belts, mangroves
to serve as windbreaks and buffer zones as well as soil-conservation and
water-management practices that reduce vulnerability to floods.

Agricultural communities in storm and flood-prone areas can also be
protected through greater use of storm-resistant and protective structures,
cyclone shelters and earth platforms to raise homestead ground levels.

During its current session (26-30 March), the FAO Committee on Agriculture
will examine other important issues, such as climate variability and change,
the place of agriculture in sustainable development, biosecurity in food and
agriculture and a medium term plan (2002-2007) for agricultural development.