Impacts of natural disasters on smallholder farmers: gaps and recommendations

Abstract

Here, we review the impacts of recent natural disasters in developing countries on rural agriculture and livelihoods with the objective of understanding gaps and providing recommendations. Lessons from these disasters demonstrate that national governments, aid agencies, and international/non-governmental organizations (I/NGOs) are effective primarily at distributing short-term products (e.g. food packages and tarpaulin) to cities. Such products are inexpensive, simple to procure, and easily quantifiable for donors. Unfortunately, the literature suggests that many national governments and foreign NGOs are ineffective at assisting rural farmers in the short and long term. Given that the global community is somewhat effective at distributing short-term products, we suggest that a similar strategy should be developed for rural areas, but focusing on products that can assist farm households. There appears to be a gap in knowledge of effective products that can target such households after a disaster. We propose an emergency sustainable agriculture kit (eSAK) framework for disaster relief in rural areas that involves a comprehensive list of products that can be combined into packages to address the needs of shelter, hunger, first aid, seeds, preservation of indigenous crop varieties, and post-disaster labour shortages. We also propose ideas on how to re-purpose relief products provided to urban areas to assist with farm needs. Products highlighted are rolls of agricultural-grade plastics, low-oxygen grain storage bags, waterproof gardening gloves, multi-use shovels, seeds of early maturing crops, fertilizers, inexpensive farming tools, temporary food support, and first-aid kits. These products are needed, inexpensive, labour efficient, compact, lightweight, available/procurable on a large scale, simple, and re-usable. Furthermore, correct use and re-purposing of the products can be explained using accompanying graphical illustrations, which is critical for rural illiterate households. As distribution to rural areas is a challenge, especially after a disaster, we propose the use of pre-existing alcohol/cigarette/snackfood distribution networks as a novel strategy for rural disaster relief. These efforts must be in partnership with local officials and grassroots organizations, with dedicated funding from governments and international aid agencies. It is hoped that global stakeholders will benefit from these recommendations to assist affected farmers after a crisis.

Development of a Scale to Measure the Attitude of Farmers towards Crop Insurance Scheme

“…Disasters can cause loss of human and animal life, field crops, stored seeds, agricultural equipment/materials, and their supply systems (e.g. infrastructure) as well as associated indigenous knowledge, thus disrupting not only the immediate growing season but also future seasons [3,4,5]. Susceptibility of agriculture to these disasters is compounded by the outbreak of epidemics and anthropological (Human caused) disasters such as fire, sale of spurious seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and price fluctuations.…”

Farming in Northern Ontario: Untapped Potential for the Future

“…This can be achieved by testing soil to optimise nutrient requirements (including micronutrients) of major field crops using the 4R principles (i.e., right source, right rate, right time and right place); designing low cost and sustainable agro-ecosystems (e.g., cover crops/intercropping, crop rotation, conservation tillage, adoption of 4R nutrient management strategies, etc.) that reduce the use of synthetic fertilisers in crop production; and by providing tools and practices (i.e., genetic selection, optimal crop and soil management practices, and field testing of precision agriculture techniques) that sustain ecosystem services, input efficiency and environmental quality while adapting to climatic extremes [17][18][19][20][21][22]. Selection of crops and/or varieties with different root architectures (i.e., longer and finer roots, including greater number of tips and branching angle, and a lower shoot: root ratio) may also help tolerate drought conditions [23,24].…”

Abiotic Stress Tolerance-Progress and Pathways of Sustainable Rice Production

“…The informal seed system through exchange and sharing amongst farmers has been an effective strategy for both pre-and post-release dissemination. This process is smooth but slow and highly fragile due to its sensitivity to natural disasters, unpredictable weather changes, and limited capacity of farmers to produce and retain good quality seeds for exchange [134]. Regular access to seeds of climate resilient rice varieties is important to address such challenges and the supply of seeds through business channels is the only sustainable way forward [83].…”

“…As a consequence, this technology has yet to be adopted at a scale where it can deliver maximal benefits. Establishment and adoption of a new research-based approaches for proper diffusion and scaling of STRVs is thus needed [134].…”