Agriculture Impacts of Natural Disasters: An Overview

Introduction

To start with, in effects of natural disasters essay will be discussed the effects of natural disasters on agriculture. The United States is the host to several different types of extremely costly and dangerous natural disasters each year. Natural disasters vary greatly in their size, severity, length and nature. All of that depends on the time, region, season and other certain conditions as well. This report will examine these particular disasters in depth and explore where and why they take place, how they damage agriculture, the provisions taken in order to be better prepared for them. In layman's terms: their overall effect on our agriculture.

Droughts

Unlike most natural disasters that are short term and violent enough to destroy buildings and lay waste to several types of infrastructure, droughts are more “peaceful” and have far less noticeable destruction at first glance. Droughts are simply prolonged amounts of time with abnormally low rainfall leading to a shortage of water. They often times are worsened by continuous warm weather or heat waves. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association states “The development of drought is a complex process that involves multiple, interwoven relationships between precipitation, land surface temperatures, soil moisture, humidity, and atmospheric patterns.” They typically take place in areas with a dry or arid climates, for example California (Southern California in particular) has just recently come out of an extreme drought that they had been dealing with for the past six years. That drought in California was largely attributed to the state’s climate alone. However, there have been certain factors such as insufficient distribution facilities, reservoir capacities, weather cycles and climate change that have been linked to intensifying the drought and making it worse.

Droughts Environmental Effects on Agriculture

Like all natural disasters the effects of a drought depends on the severity, when it comes to droughts severity typically goes hand-in-hand with how hot and long lasting the drought is, some droughts can last up to several years while others can be as short as fifteen days. Due to the lack of rainfall during a drought soil is unable to get the proper hydration that it’s supposed to have, which leads the soil to becoming dry and cracked which compromises the health and nutrient uptake of crops. The stress from lack of water can affect the physical, biological and chemical aspects of the soil, all of which are essential for crops to be healthy and to grow properly. Out of these types of stress the one that is most profound is that of chemical change in soil. Another more severe consequence of drought is when any excess Nitrates are released the crops cannot utilize them because of a lessened nutrient uptake caused by the dryness of the soil. 

Water is put at risk of being particularly polluted during times of drought as well. This is due to the lack of rainfall, when there is a healthy amount of rainfall it will dilute most agricultural and industrial chemicals that runoff into the water. A lack of rainfall means that the water will be continuosly polluted, which is dangerous for any plants or animals that may need it. The toxic water will occasionally even get into our drinking water. Even if a place gets a healthy amount of rain after a severe drought crop growth may still be stunted for several seasons afterwards.

Droughts Economic Effect on Agriculture

Unlike most natural disasters that are so violent they destroy infrastructure like bridges or homes, the damage caused by drought has mostly to do with agricultural resources becoming unavailable or more costly to use. So, even though you may not be aware of the destruction at first look, be aware that droughts are still very costly. For example: between the years of 2012 and 2015 farmers in California lost a total of $350 million dollars in dairy and livestock revenue alone. They also lost $900 million from loss in crop revenue. Additional water pumping cost Californian farmers about $590 million. Overall the damages caused by the drought in California cost the state approximately 2.7 Billion dollars.

Provisions Taken to be Prepared for Droughts

As previously stated, droughts are unique in nature. So, naturally there are very few things in regards to structural integrity or things of that nature that can be done to be better prepared for them. Most steps for farmers when it comes to being prepared for droughts come down to the individual and have to do with such things as voluntary and preemptive preparedness and unfortunately, they are typically not very effective. A few examples of these preemptive measures include: checking to see if your irrigation systems are as efficient as possible or investing in water measurement implements in order to be more aware of your water usage.

Although voluntary precautions may not be very effective, mandatory water restrictions are very effective when somewhere is already in the midst of drought. An example of the effectiveness is that during a Colorado drought in 2004 every single city that had mandatory water restrictions saw significant decline in water usage, ranging from a 13% to 53%. 

Flooding and Torrential Rains

Flooding is when extremely large quantities of water overflows beyond its typical confines of what we are normally used to and submerge what would normally be dry land. Compared to other natural disasters floods are unique because they have such a wide array of causes. Some of the most common causes for inland flooding include: melting of snow and ice, the breaking of dams, insufficient drainage basins, the overflowing of rivers, or torrential rain. While those causes are able to happen in any place areas that are closer to the coast are also subject to floods caused by things such as storm surges, tsunamis, and hurricanes. Floods are common on a global scale and happen all over the world, along with being one of the most common natural disasters in the world they are also one of the most expensive, destructive and dangerous. The formation of floods are usually quick, often times taking less than a day. After a flood is formed they will frequently last several days or weeks, sometimes even lasting months. The extreme force of flowing water is another major contributor to floods being so dangerous. For some perspective: it only takes six inches of flowing water to knock somebody down and a foot of water is enough to sweep away a car.  With the combination of length and sheer force floods are one of the worst disasters that a community can face.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, every year our farmers and the contributors to American agriculture suffer greatly from these disasters. The many woes and the often long road ahead of farmers following a major natural disaster often include hardships such as: the loss of a harvest, loss of livestock, increased livestock endangerment or susceptibility to disease and injury, along with the destruction of irrigation systems and many other vital agricultural infrastructures. Events sweltering dry heat waves and droughts, tornadoes that tear apart the ground we stand on, and floods which are devastating and merciless are constantly undermining agricultural output.