International Day for Disaster Reduction: Towards a More Resilient Agriculture

Today, 13 October 2024, marks the 35th International Day for Disaster Reduction. Established by the United Nations, this observance aims to draw international attention to the importance of disaster prevention and mitigation.

Over the past year, increasingly erratic natural disasters ravaging regions across the country remain the greatest threat to Chinese farmers, and the enduring reality of agriculture being at the mercy of the weather continues.

Since the onset of summer, extreme weather events have occurred with growing frequency nationwide. In June, prolonged heavy rainfall triggered severe flooding across several southern provinces, while the north endured scorching temperatures and scarce precipitation. The drought in Henan province was particularly severe, with average rainfall running 71 per cent below the historical norm for this period. Unable to irrigate their fields, farmers in many areas have been left in a state of deep anxiety.

As July began, the north again faced a sudden shift from drought to flooding. Taking Henan as an example, record-breaking downpours struck in mid-July, inundating homes, cutting power supplies and trapping residents. Crops that farmers had painstakingly salvaged from the drought were suddenly swept away. Summer grain harvests nationwide experienced a rare decline, falling 0.9% on the previous year. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs noted that while yields were slightly down, the overall harvest remained abundant.

Hampered by successive waves of extreme weather—including prolonged heatwaves and heavy rainfall—across China’s main vegetable-growing regions, vegetable prices continued to climb throughout the summer. It felt like a long wait until autumn finally arrived. In September, Super Typhoon Yagi made landfall in Hainan, causing losses to the province’s agriculture, animal husbandry and fisheries sectors exceeding 10 billion yuan. Typhoon Bebinca, the strongest to hit Shanghai in 75 years, flooded vegetable fields and damaged greenhouses in Shanghai, Jiangsu and surrounding areas. Hatcheries farming hairy crabs in Yangcheng Lake also reported breached enclosures, with crabs escaping.

Equally distressing were the devastating floods in Meizhou, Guangdong on 16 June, the levee breaches in Huarong, Hunan along the Dongting Lake, and the torrential rains in Huludao, Liaoning… These weather-related disasters have followed one after another, yet they are not a phenomenon confined to this year. Rising global temperatures are increasing atmospheric moisture levels, intensifying weather systems and making extreme events such as heavy rainfall and typhoons more frequent.

Early this year, the World Meteorological Organisation confirmed that 2023 was the hottest year on record, and projected that the global average temperature for 2024 could be even higher. Data shows that every decade since the 1980s has been warmer than the one before it. Global mean temperatures are currently approximately 1.45°C above pre-industrial levels (1850–1900), and are set to rise further. This means that increasingly frequent and destructive weather-related disasters are becoming a new normal that the agricultural sector must learn to navigate.

Taking this opportunity, we have compiled previously published articles on climate from Foodthink, to explore with our readers the weather-related disasters that have impacted farming in recent years, and how we might build a more resilient agricultural system.