Critical Infrastructures: Food and Agriculture (FA) Sector

Food and Agriculture (FA) Sector

Welcome to another week. It’s no secret that it is vital that we must protect our food and agricultural critical infrastructure which is an essential environmental component critical to our livelihood. It is an important responsibility shared by all levels of the US government including federal, state, local, as well as tribal and private sector partners. Should there be any potential interruption of operations within this sector, the results would be consequentially devastating effecting the US both economically and agriculturally.  For example, the agricultural sector alone includes crops, livestock, fisheries, and forestry and “absorbs 22% of the total economic impact caused by natural hazards” such as tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, tornados, wild fires, drought, etc. (FAO)

Natural Hazards

With that being said, protecting our Food and Agricultural (FA) Sector is an essential part of the Homeland Security’s mission of making America safe, secured, and more resilient from not only terrorist attacks but by natural and manmade hazards. Interestingly, post-disaster needs assessments reviewed, the crop subsector is the most affected by natural hazards. Total damage and losses to the crop subsector amount to approximately 13 billion dollars and almost 60% of the damages and losses were caused by floods followed by storms with 23%. See chart below.

Source: FAO based on data from post-disaster needs assessments, 2003–2013

Flooded crops can be developmentally delayed resulting in farmers needing to use additional weed control which increases costs. Additionally, floodwaters can bring in new weed seeds that increase control costs and reduce yields in future years. Take into consideration that erosion washes the fertile top soil away and increases input costs and reduces yields in future years. Soil deposition is another significant problem. More than a few inches of deposition, even of fertile silt, can smother an existing crop. Sand and gravel can also be deposited on cropland by floodwaters, necessitating the removal or spreading out and mixing in of these deposits, which likely are not as fertile as the existing soil and thus imply higher input costs and lower yields.

Forestry

Click for Additional Resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stI1NrLXqgg

Forest fire damage Argyle Canyon 2012

Considering the forestry subsector, it can also be negatively affected by natural hazards. Between 2003 and 2013, there were 26 disaster-related events which resulted in 737 million dollars in damage and losses to natural forestry. This represented 2.4% of all damage and losses within the agriculture sector. Hurricanes, typhoons and similar storms have the greatest impact on the forestry subsector.

Drought

Click for Additional Resource: https://youtu.be/Xo1Jyzba7rA


Dried maize corn plants grow in a drought affected field

Drought has an especially detrimental impact. Approximately 90% of production losses. For example, agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa where the sector on average contributes to a quarter of the gross domestic product (GDP). The total crop and livestock production losses after major droughts were equivalent to more than 30 billion dollars between 1991 and 2013 in the region.

Storms/Floods

Click for Additional Resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMsQbjkCr8k

Courtesy of lambertplanet.blogspot.com

In another instance, many Asian countries are particularly vulnerable to the impact of floods and storms. Crop production losses caused by the 2010 floods in Pakistan critically affected cotton ginning, rice processing, and sugar milling, while cotton and rice imports surged. In this case, some 50% of the 10 billion dollars in total damages and losses fell on the agriculture sector.



Recognizing the critical importance of resilience in agriculture for food security, the US and other countries have adopted policies to mainstream disaster risk reductions across key segments within the agriculture sector. For example, some countries such as the United Republic of Tanzania have developed a national agriculture development plan which integrates risk reduction as part of their strategy to achieve sector growth while building strength. These plans reflect good practices that need to be replicated and expounded more broadly in countries where damages and losses to agriculture caused by natural disasters are high. In doing so, these practices can and will achieve agricultural security (Mitchell, 2008). See also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeoIsjYBQH0


References:

DHS. (2017, July 6). Food and Agriculture Sector. Retrieved from Department of Homeland Security: https://www.dhs.gov/food-and-agriculture-sector

FAO. (2015). The Impact of Natural Hazards and Disasters on Agriculture and Food Security and Nutrition. Rome: Viale delle Terme di Caracalla.

Mitchell, P. D. (2008, Aug. 11). Flooding on the Farm. Retrieved from Storm Water Solutions: https://www.estormwater.com/flooding-farmhttps://www.dhs.gov/critical-infrastructure-sectors