Disaster Risk Reduction in Agriculture

Disaster risk could be a serious injury or even loss of human life, destruction or damage of property or assets of society due to exposure to some hazardous events. In contrast, disaster risk reduction is the protection of lives and livelihood of the persons of that society who are most susceptible to disaster, caused by either nature or humans or collectively both. Federal Emergency Management Agency of the United States has identified 18 types of natural hazards, including coastal flooding, avalanche, drought, cold wave, earthquake, heat wave, hail, ice storm, hurricane (tropical cyclone), lightning, riverine flooding, landslide, tornado, strong wind, volcanic activity, tsunami, severe winter weather and wildfire. The atmosphere of our globe responds to all the changes occurring in it. Ultimately, interruptions in the total solar irradiance have enhanced the mean global temperature by at least 0.2 °C to 0.85 °C between 1880 and 2012, as claimed in the 5th IPCC assessment report. To date, the rise in temperature has resulted in intense variations to natural and human systems, among these increases are floods, droughts and a few other kinds of risky weather; rise in sea level; and major loss of biodiversity. To counteract the adversaries of disasters, risk reduction measures are critical. Structural interventions like the construction of dikes (dykes), dams, storm or hill torrent water control, watersheds, sediments management and groundwater storage, etc., can significantly aid in reducing the natural disaster risk. Disaster hazards can be reduced by the migration of people to safer places. However, forced migration affects the socioeconomics of the people making their livelihoods more vulnerable. Agricultural crops and other vegetation alter with flood disaster and over time run off the volume and intensity determines further land use changes. Migration aids in drought vulnerability by unemployment. Infrastructure health systems and cleanliness, food security and water security will improve socioeconomics, which assists in reducing disasters vulnerability. Moreover, insurance, diversity in agricultural practices, improved drinking water supplies, improved urban planning and access to markets will improve the lifestyle of the disaster-prone areas.