It is estimated that every year more than 300 million people are affected
by catastrophes, not only social but also natural: earthquakes, floods,
landslides, volcanic eruptions, draughts, forest fires, tropical storms
and epidemics.

Most of these phenomena are impossible to prevent, though their negative
impact can be reduced or avoided with the implementation of practical
measures as long as the communities at risk are prepared with effective
mechanisms of response locally, regionally, and nationally.

In this sense, urban agriculture becomes an emerging alternative that
significantly influences food production on the community level in many
nations of the world.

A considerable amount of specialists believes that it is an alternative as
to food security and a means of survival for some surviving social sectors
despite their extreme poverty.

Food production in the cities and on nearby areas has a faster capacity of
recover based on principles of local sustainability; therefore, it is
vital to rely on a manual for producers and the population in general.

This manual would comprise a number of recommendations for those people
linked somehow to this sector so that they can orient their resources
towards places that would favor high yielding before and after being hit
by hurricanes or other hostile meteorological phenomena.

In consequence with this reality, a group of Cuban experts elaborated a
“Manual for urban and suburban agriculture producers in view of threats of
adverse climate phenomena”.

This endeavor by these specialists, from the Institute on Tropical
Agriculture Researches and the National Group of Urban Agriculture, was
carried out in cooperation with the non governmental organization Oxfam
International.

Oxfam, in Cuba for 17 years, is an international confederation of 15
organizations working together in 98 countries to find lasting solutions
to poverty and injustice.

The specialists that drafted the manual point out that this initiative
does not aim at substituting the existing legal and official indications
in this regard, but it is a complement to enhance knowledge for those
involved in urban agriculture programs.

They insist that in order to reduce risks it is necessary to train
producers on the right selection of areas, the use of construction
designs, strategic reserves of seeds and resources, sowing plans, and
contracts with the National Insurance Enterprise.