Protecting agriculture in times of climate threats

By Adoniram Sanchez and Maryam Khamis*

Collaborators Prensa Latina

Rural populations and the people who work in these agricultural value chains, which produce food and drive countries’ economies, are already suffering the impacts.

In 2023, all records for high temperatures have been broken, and severe floods, droughts, megafires and heat waves are now regular events in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Today, the region faces a new blow: the emergence of the El Niño phenomenon, which has caused sea surface temperatures to rise, wreaking havoc on fishing, and threatening to intensify climate shocks such as drought.

This is particularly worrying for the agricultural sector. According to recent FAO figures, agriculture and its sectors absorb 82 percent of the total economic losses resulting from this type of event, and 23 percent of the total damage and losses resulting from disasters.

That is why we must adopt innovative and scalable solutions to avoid and reduce these losses.

Forecasts and alerts allow proactive actions to be implemented

Forecasts and alerts allow us to take proactive actions to reduce risks and mitigate potential impacts, rather than waiting for emergencies to occur to act.

They also help us prepare for disasters that we cannot avoid, ensuring faster and more efficient responses to emergency situations, thus preserving people’s dignity.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) supports countries in implementing proactive measures against drought in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Venezuela and Colombia.

These measures include infrastructure to capture, store and manage water and irrigation systems to optimize its use.

In Ecuador, assistance is also being provided to prepare for El Niño Costero by implementing sewerage systems and cleaning canals.

Mobilize more aid for vulnerable Latin American communities

FAO also presented a response plan to mobilize more aid to vulnerable communities in Latin America, with the aim of supporting more than one million people in several countries of the region.

These efforts are in addition to a broader climate change adaptation programme.

Building resilience to climate change is the only way to protect people’s livelihoods, for better production, better nutrition, better environment and better life.

We shared part of the work we are developing during this year’s Climate Week in Panama, where countries in the region put the importance of climate action at the center of the table.

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*The authors are the Sub-Regional Coordinator for Central America and the FAO Representative in Panama and Costa Rica; and FAO Disaster Risk Management Specialist for Latin America and the Caribbean, respectively.