Study highlights benefits of disaster resilient farming practices

Farmers can gain significantly by adopting “disaster resilient” farming practices, said a new study by the United Nations agriculture agency.

According to Disaster risk reduction at farm level: Multiple benefits, no regrets, many of the low-cost farming innovations are within easy reach of poor farmers and are much more than buffers against disasters.

The study is based on multi-year trials on over 900 farms in 10 different countries.

The practices include planting mangrove to protect coastal areas from floods and shifting to rooftop water collection and irrigation systems.

“The study makes clear that in most cases, disaster risk reduction (DRR) efforts on the farm make good economic sense: that investing in DDR early can save many dollars that would otherwise be spent on post-disaster rehabilitation,” said Dominique Burgeon, Director of FAO Emergency and Resilience Division, in the foreword to the report….

 

Widespread flooding in Paraguay causes damage, deaths

Paraguay has been inundated by frequent heavy rains that started at the end of April and have continued into this week.

In some locations across the country, it has rained nine out of 17 days, with some areas receiving well over 80mm rainfall daily.

The early days of heavy rain led to widespread flooding and evacuations as well as a state of emergency being declared.

But now, even though the rain has subsided, areas along the Paraguay River are dealing with concerns over floods as the swollen Paraguay River overflows…