A/HRC/37/61 cereals, including maize, rice, sorghum and millet, leading to significantly below-average levels of crop production for 2015 and 2016.16 20. Seeds are essential to ensure the next planting seasons and future harvests. If not well protected, seeds are likely to be either damaged or completely destroyed. 17 Floods can damage seed storing facilities, and the seeds themselves may become wet, thus jeopardizing their potential use. After the earthquake in Nepal in 2015, it was reported that many seeds had been damaged or lost and that storage facilities had been damaged. 18 2. Accessibility 21. Natural disasters affect access to food in a number of ways. They contribute to food price inflation in local markets because of scarcity of commodities. They may also lead to increased unemployment or declining wages for farm workers, thus diminishing their purchasing power. 19 Such developments produce an erosion of livelihood, especially in rural areas. 22. In Pakistan in 2010, intense monsoons induced floods, which affected more than 20 million people and seriously impacted the circulation of food commodities inside the country as both roads and the rail network had been damaged. 20 In addition, in some regions a reduction in market capacity was reported, because market sellers’ vending and storage facilities had been damaged by the floods.21 23. In Lesotho in 2016, El Niño-related drought disturbed the harvest season, leading to low production and food price inflation. In this context, the pressures on livelihoods pushed many households to borrow or to obtain credit in order to buy food, and even drove people to resort to illegal activities.22 24. In 2015 and 2016 in Ethiopia, food insecurity, partly caused by El Niño, prolonged intense drought, pushed many small-scale farmers to use last-resort coping strategies such as selling their livestock and agricultural assets. 23 Negative coping strategies have longterm consequences on achieving the right to food. When assets are lost, the already low capacity of small-scale farmers and fisherfolk to invest in quality equipment or seeds may be negatively affected. Some may not be able to reinvest in such assets due to the absence of insurance or the unavailability of credit, and others may decide to go for less sustainable options as regards crop choice or agricultural technology. 24 3. Adequacy 25. Adequacy requires that food satisfy dietary needs (factoring in a person’s age, living conditions, health, occupation, sex etc.) and that it be safe for human consumption, free of adverse substances, culturally acceptable and nutritious. Natural disasters negatively affect food adequacy, especially by potentially causing reductions in the quality of food consumed, which increases prospects of malnutrition. 26. As will be discussed further in the present report, when a natural disaster hits poor communities, the nutritional status of children is a major concern, both in the immediate 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 6 www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/emergencies/docs/FAO%20Ethiopia%20Situation%20Report%2 0-%20April%202016.pdf. Food Security Information Network, Global Report on Food Crises 2017, p. 83. Tejendra Chapagain and Manish N. Raizada, “Impacts of natural disasters on smallholder farmers: gaps and recommendations”, Agriculture and Food Security, vol. 6, No. 1 (2017). See http://nepal.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/PDNA_volume_BFinalVersion.pdf. FAO, The Impact of Disasters on Agriculture and Food Security. WFP, “Pakistan flood impact assessment” (2010), p. 8, available at http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/ena/wfp225987.pdf. Ibid., p. 9. Food Security Information Network, Global Report on Food Crises 2017, p. 75. Ibid., p. 28. Anastasia Telesetsky, “An evolving role for law and policy in addressing food security before, during and after a disaster”, Research Handbook on Disasters and International Law, Susan C. Breau and Katja L.H. Samuel, eds. (Edward Elgar, 2016), p. 265.