Impact of Disasters on Agriculture and Food Security 2025 “Digital solutions for reducing risks and impacts” Opening Statement

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Colleagues,

The “Impact of Disasters on Agriculture and Food Security” report has become the global reference on how disasters affect global agrifood systems.

Today, the agrifood sector faces an unprecedented escalation of risks, from multi-year droughts in the Horn of Africa to catastrophic floods in Pakistan, from hurricanes disrupting fisheries, to pests and wildfires devastating millions of hectares of forests.

These are not isolated crises, but symptoms of a new reality: a world where climate shocks multiply risks, and where slow-oncoming disasters decrease or halt productivity.

Disasters are becoming more frequent, more intense, and more interconnected, leading to compound risks that exceed traditional coping capacities.

We must understand the risk, analyze the risk and prepare for de-risking.

We must act quickly to transform global agrifood systems to be more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

This report is of crucial importance for a number of reasons:

First: it provides a comprehensive global assessment of disaster losses in agriculture, quantifying economic impacts across all sectors.

Second: the first edition of this report two years ago highlighted the power of prevention, showing that every dollar invested in anticipatory action yields up to seven dollars in benefits.

Third: this year’s edition goes further: it explores how we can mobilize transformative investments that deliver resilience at scale, through science, innovation and the digital technologies that are reshaping our world,

Digital tools, satellite data and Artificial Intelligence make it possible to deliver instant disaster relief to millions who were previously out of reach.

In July, FAO opened its first-ever Situation Room, with the generous support of the Government of Liberia. The Situation Room is a real-time platform for monitoring food insecurity risks, supporting early warning, and enabling anticipatory action, and offers Members and partners open access to shared data for faster, evidence-based decisions.

Fourth: the report highlights that technology alone is not enough. Digital transformation must be farmer-centered, designed with farmers, by them and for them.

Yet, 2.6 billion people remain offline. Without decisive action, the most vulnerable will fall even further behind.

Building resilience requires more than technology, it demands coherent enabling policies, sustained investment in infrastructure, and capacity development.

Dear Colleagues,

The findings of this report directly impact FAO’s mandate.

Disasters threaten all pillars of food security: they reduce food availability, disrupt access to food, degrade utilization, undermine stability, and decrease food affordability.

FAO’s work on disaster risk reduction is therefore central to our mission.

The evidence presented in this report shows that with accurate data, sound knowledge, the right tools, and shared commitment, we can accelerate transformation.

The challenges are huge and the task before us is immense, but so is our collective capacity to transform these challenges into opportunities for all.

Together, we can transform agrifood systems to achieve the Four Betters: Better Production, Better Nutrition, a Better Environment, and a Better Life — leaving no one behind.

Thank you.