Background
Economic losses from natural disasters are rising globally. According to a latest report by UNISDR (2018), disaster-hit countries experienced direct economic losses to the tune of US$ 2,908 billion between 1998 and 2017; of the total losses, 77% were due to climate-related disasters. Compared to the period between 1978- 1997, there was increase of 68% of losses. This is to be noted that 91% of all disasters were caused by floods, storms, droughts, heat-waves and other extreme weather events during this period. India is also experiencing a similar trend with Government of India’s Economic Survey 2018, putting the losses at US$ 9-10 billion annually due to extreme weather events.
Manufacturing and Agriculture (including agribusiness, agro-industries, food processing, fisheries, animal husbandry, etc.) sector are among the most disaster affected sectors. Manufacturing has emerged as one of the high growth sectors in India which may cover Natural Resource Management and Engineering Manufacturing. Prime Minister of India had launched the ‘Make in India’ program to place India on the world map as a manufacturing hub and give global recognition to the Indian economy. India is expected to become the fifth largest manufacturing country in the world by the end of year 2020. Government aims to achieve 25 per cent GDP share and 100 million new jobs in the sector by 2022. Effective disaster management can go a long way in mitigating the damage caused by natural catastrophes, thereby increasing plant safety.
Agricultural activity is adversely affected by any unforeseen weather changes or variations in physical conditions. This gets accentuated in case of cyclones, floods and droughts resulting in disruption of people’s livelihood and adding to the risk, damage and stress of disasters as a substantial part of the population depends on agriculture for its livelihood. Crop losses due to pests, disease, wild animals etc are also considerable. Approximately 600 million people live in rural areas of India and depend upon natural resource base and climate sensitive sectors like agriculture, forestry and fishing for their livelihoods. They continue to rely on a biomass-based subsistence and live in areas that already suffer from rising ecological degradation, low productivity, water shortages and recurrent droughts or floods. Smallholder farmers in are particularly vulnerable to natural hazard impacts due to high exposure to natural hazards coupled with low production levels and rain-fed conditions. Animal Husbandry and Fisheries sector are also being threatened by disasters. Iimproving productivity of farm animals and fishes are one of the major challenges. Frequent outbreak of diseased also affects the sector.
The productive sector which includes manufacturing sector and agriculture sector is the most important sector of the Indian economy. The productive sector includes small workshops producing posts, artisan production, mills producing textiles, factories producing steel, chemicals, fertilizers, petrochemicals, plastics, textiles, car, food production such as brewing plants and food processing, oil refinery, electronics, IT hardware and peripherals, mining, gems and jewelleries, etc. This sector is however, threatened by different natural disasters. Today, natural disasters are on the rise around the world, both in terms of their magnitude and their frequency. These natural disasters have domino effect on industrial facilities such as hazardous chemicals depots, gas and oil inventories, port terminals, power plants, transportation hubs for dangerous materials, and can trigger technology malfunctions resulting in the release of hazardous materials into the surrounding environment. The consequences of these ‘combination accidents’ are severe, causing immense damage to the public and the environment as a whole.
One of the key drivers behind such increasing loss due to disasters is lack of appropriate disaster management including risk reduction strategy based on knowledge about hazard impacts and access to risk information. The increased frequency and severity of climate related hazards and risks induced by climate change are adding a new dimension to the existing disaster risk profile of India Therefore, there is an emerging consensus that to ensure sustainable development it is essential to incorporate hazard risk considerations into sectoral development plans.
Session Objectives:
Expected Outcome:
The programme will allow knowledge sharing among experts from government agencies, scientific/ academic/ research institutions, sector specialists and NGOs working in the field of agriculture, manufacturing, fisheries and animal husbandry sectors, climate change and disaster management.Key Stakeholders:
Central ministries (Environment Forest and Climate Change, Corporate Affairs, Ministry of Science and Technology, Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Jal Shakti, Micro, Small and medium Enterprise, Mines, New and Renewable Energy, Petroleum and Natural Gas, Labour, Industry & Commerce, Chemicals & fertilizers, Ministry of Power, Railways, Road Transport and Highways), IITs, NITs, ICAR, IIMs, National Safety Council, DGFASLI, Institution of Engineers, CGIAR, and other National Research Intuitions.