Disaster Risk Reduction and Rural Resilience: With a Focus on Agriculture, Water, Gender and Technology

Even though frequent disaster losses occur in rural and agricultural areas, a substantial number of the prevailing disaster research has focused on urban areas, often failing to notice rural populations, communities, and rural development as a whole. It is critical to assess how the needs and vulnerabilities in rural communities impact the creation of resilience, especially in countries with a large area under rural regions. For disaster managers, rural areas present different opportunities and challenges from their urban counterparts. Rural communities’ position after a disaster is different from that of urban communities. Efficient DRR (disaster risk reduction) is the key to sustainable rural development.

Disasters can cause human and animal life loss, field crops, stored seeds, agricultural equipment/materials, supply systems (e.g., infrastructure), livelihood, and associated indigenous knowledge. Such impacts have its short-term repercussions and affect the long-term sustainability of the rural sector. Rural regions of the developing world can be remote, with high concentrations of mass poverty, food insecurity, and illiteracy; hence access to food, shelter, and communication related to relief and recovery is a challenge after a disaster. In rural areas, farmers strongly rely on natural resources and have no alternative source of income or employment, making them more vulnerable to a crisis. Role of women in rural development and agricultural activities is of paramount importance. Yet they are the most affected ones during any disaster. Vulnerabilities of children and especially abled people in the rural sector are untouched areas that require more attention in days to come.

This book deliberates on the aspects as mentioned above related to disaster risk reduction, preparedness, and management. Apart from the introduction, the book has four parts: (1) Food and Agriculture, (2) Water andSanitation, (3) Gender and Social Issues, and (4) Technology. Overall, this book is a valuable resource material for students, researchers, academia, policymakers, and development practitioners.

Sudip Mitra is currently the Head and Professor at the School of Agro and Rural Technology and the founding Head of the Centre for Disaster Management and Research at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati, Assam, India. A Nehru-Fulbright Fellow and Visiting Professor at the Keio University, Japan. He is a faculty member in the International Joint Masters and Ph.D. programs in Food Science and Technology for the Gifu University, Japan and IIT Guwahati. He is an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Science, India (NASI). He guided four Ph.D.s, and 13 more are currently working under his supervision. He serves as an Editorial Board member of PLOS Climate Journal. He edited two proceedings published by Springer and published more than 50 papers in peer-reviewed journals (mostly Q1) and reports of international repute. He served as task force member of the Ministry of Rural Development, DST-TIFAC on Climate Change and Agriculture under the Government of India. He conducted many nationally and internationally funded research projects like JICA, UNEP, GEF, World Bank, CIDA, GTZ, DST, DBT, UEF-Finland etc. He also worked as a Consultant for the Inter Academy Council’s project on 'Realizing the Promise and Potential of African Agriculture: Science and Technology Strategies for Improving Food Security and Agricultural Productivity in Africa' (2004).

Rajib Shaw is a Professor in the Graduate School of Media and Governance at Keio University, Japan. Earlier, he was the executive director of the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) and was a professor at Kyoto University. His expertise includes disaster governance, community-based disaster risk management, climate change adaptation, urban risk management, and disaster and environmental education. He was the chair of the United Nations Science Technology Advisory Group (STAG) for disaster risk reduction and currently is the co-chair of the Asia Pacific Science Technology Academic Advisory Group (APSTAAG). He is also the coordinating lead author (CLA) for the Asia chapter’s 6th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He is the editor-in-chief of the journal Progress in Disaster Science and series editor of a Springer book series on disaster risk reduction. He has published 71 books and over 450 academic papers and book chapters.