The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Thursday that new and unprecedented forms of natural disasters are most heavily felt in the agricultural industry.

It said, at no other point in history have agri-food systems faced more hazards such as mega-fires, extreme weather, unusually large desert locust swarms, and emerging biological threats, as during the past year of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

According to the agency, these disasters devastate agricultural livelihoods, inflicting cascading negative economic consequences from household to national levels, that could potentially endure for generations.

Patrick Sallia reports.