Stages 1-4    Seasonality    Armed Conflict    Natural Disasters

   Drought       Food Aid       Famine

Natural disasters can be sudden, severe, unexpected events that cause a serious threat to food security, as well as other aspects a household's livelihood.  Natural disasters can also be minor incidents that make a household more vulnerable to food insecurity (as with repeated poor rainy seasons).  As like situations with armed conflict, natural disaster  may affect household food security by disrupting many of the agricultural, employment, and food distribution systems, as well as roads and markets.   The effect a disaster has on a particular country or region depends  greatly on the vulnerability and preparedness of the area (the less vulnerable, and more prepared the greater the ability to rehabilitate and prevent severe food insecurity).  Some sort of an assessment of vulnerability would assist in understanding what aspects of a given society would be more resilient to particular disasters.

There are a number natural disasters that may affect a society: drought, floods, tropical cyclones, earthquakes, tsunamis (giant sea waves), and volcanoes.  All of these can potentially disrupt livelihoods, and food security.

Drought

A drought can result from inadequate rainfall, reduction in water resources, or less than optimum water for crops (especially during key periods of growth).   All of these can affect the supply of economic goods and services, which obviously stifles the amount of food available or accessible.

Drought identification is very reliant on the context of time, i.e. when the lack of water is occurring and for how long.  What is considered 'normal' for a particular period of time and place will determine whether a situation can be referred to as a drought.

Vulnerability to drought and its repercussions vary upon a range of factors. 
(1)  A very key aspect to drought vulnerability is whether a population gets its water from a well or other reliable source, or if it relies on rainfall. Those that are using rain for the source of water are particularly vulnerable to food insecurity in times of drought, due to the lack of water for agriculture and domestic purposes.  It needs to be noted that some populations can withstand a series of mild droughts, but generally vulnerability to food insecurity increases with each successive bout of insufficient water due to repeated harvest failures, depletion of food stocks and capital assets.
(2)  Drought has a differential impact by wealth status (i.e., access to labor, capital and improved input).  In a study from Ethiopia, wealthier households achieved drought-year yields three times higher than poor households.  The wealthier households did change their diet, but less than poor households changed their food intake (Webb, 1993).

Floods

Floods can cause massive destruction to infrastructure, including road and buildings, as well as farmland.  The damage depends on nature and context of the flood: Is it high or low land ?  Where are people living ?   What type of economical or agricultural activity is taking place?  In low-income countries with high population densities, utilizing floodplain land is a real situation.   Unfortunately many of these countries do not have effective warning systems, evacuation procedures and methods to facilitate post-flood recovery.

Flooding can be an important part of agriculture though, by irrigating the land and loading the soil with nutrients.  Mitigating all floods in these areas would be an inappropriate approach; whereas protecting the floodplains from high (and likely disastrous) floods would be the preferred approach.