THE recent floods in the southwest region of Bangladesh have caused widespread destruction to crops and livestock, affecting over 5.8 million people. The Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards, LEGS, and the Standards for Supporting Crop-related Livelihoods in Emergencies, SEADS, offer frameworks for effective disaster response through joint assessment tools, incorporating participatory methods like proportional piling and ranking. These methods help prioritise urgent needs in disaster-affected areas. Key components of a rapid response strategy include early warning systems, resilient infrastructure, livelihood diversification, post-flood recovery and capacity building. This approach promotes community involvement and focuses on the most critical issues, ensuring more targeted interventions. By utilising LEGS and SEADS standards, disaster responders can design strategies that address both immediate and long-term recovery needs, helping communities recover quickly and enhancing resilience to future disasters.
The recent floods in the southwest region of Bangladesh have caused significant damage to crops and livestock, highlighting the urgent need for a comprehensive and rapid response strategy. With over 5.8 million people affected and livestock and poultry losses exceeding Tk 4.11 billion, the flood has damaged 291,333 hectares of paddy fields and 19,680 hectares of aman seedbeds. The fisheries sector suffered losses of Tk 15.9 crore, with 180,000 ponds and farms damaged and a loss of 90,768 tonnes of fish and shrimp. The scale and intensity of this flood damage require a coordinated and data-driven science-based response. Two internationally recognised frameworks, the Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards (LEGS) and the Standards for Supporting Crop-related Livelihoods in Emergencies (SEADS), offer essential tools for conducting initial assessments and developing post-disaster interventions in such emergencies.
These frameworks advocate for the use of joint assessment tools (JAT) to design effective response programmes that directly address the needs of disaster-affected communities. This requires collaboration between local government, national and international non-governmental organisations, bilateral and multilateral agencies, and, most importantly, the active participation of affected communities. The joint assessment tools approach encourages unbiased, community-driven assessments using participatory research methods, such as proportional piling and ranking, to inform relief and recovery efforts. These methods engage local stakeholders in identifying and prioritising resources, thereby ensuring that interventions are tailored to the community鈥檚 specific needs.
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Participatory methods in livestock-crop emergencies
PROPORTIONAL piling allows farmers and community members to visually represent the relative importance of various resources or priorities, such as different livestock species or crops, by distributing tokens among options. For example, in flood-affected regions, farmers could allocate tokens to cattle, goats, or poultry based on their significance for food security or income recovery. This method helps emergency responders assess the most critical livestock species and the most urgent needs for resources like fodder, veterinary care, and disease management.
Ranking is another valuable participatory tool, enabling communities to place issues in hierarchical order based on criteria like urgency or importance. For example, farmers may rank their needs for relief items 鈥� such as water, shelter, or veterinary services for livestock, or seeds and fertilisers for crop recovery. This helps ensure that immediate needs are addressed first, allowing for an effective and prioritised allocation of resources.
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Key components of a rapid response strategy
TO EFFECTIVELY address the impacts of disasters such as the floods in southwest Bangladesh, a rapid response strategy should include the following key interventions:
Early warning and preparedness: Establish community-based early warning systems with mobile alerts for farmers; train local disaster management committees to ensure timely evacuation and the protection of livestock, seeds, and tools; pre-position emergency seeds, animal feed, fodder, and farm inputs in strategic flood-prone zones; resilient infrastructure and farm adaptation; promote flood-resistant cropping techniques, such as floating gardens and short-duration rice varieties; strengthen farm embankments and improve drainage systems to protect fields and livestock areas; build elevated platforms or shelters for livestock to minimise losses during floods; livelihood diversification and income protection; support alternative livelihoods like fish farming in floodwaters and poultry rearing in raised coops; introduce microfinance options and livestock insurance schemes to protect farmer incomes during floods; post-flood recovery and rehabilitation; provide emergency fodder banks and mobile veterinary services to safeguard livestock health;s supply quick-maturing crops to restore food supply; ensure financial support through grants or loans to repair damaged agricultural infrastructure; capacity building and community engagement; conduct training on flood-resilient agriculture, focusing on soil management and biosecurity; empower farmers鈥� associations to coordinate recovery efforts and share best practices ; and implement gender-sensitive approaches to support women鈥檚 roles in agriculture.
Effective disaster recovery relies on the use of LEGS and SEADS standards alongside participatory methods such as proportional piling and ranking, ensuring that the needs of crop-livestock communities are identified and prioritised by those affected. By incorporating these tools, emergency responders can design immediate and sustainable interventions, enhancing the resilience of these communities to future disasters. A comprehensive approach 鈥� one that includes preparedness, infrastructure adaptation, livelihood diversification, and capacity building 鈥� will help mitigate the devastating effects of disasters like the recent floods in Bangladesh.
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Dr SM Rajiur Rahman is a livestock and nutrition expert. He is a former consultant at the United Nation Industrial Development Organization and Food and Agricultural Organisation.