Description:
Since Asia comprises a large portion of the World’s popula- tion, and more than 40% of all the foods in the world occur in Asia, a large number of people are affected by disasters (Fig. 14). More than 40% of the people killed by natural di- sasters are killed in Asia (Fig. 15). In the ten-year period from 1999–2008, 402 foods were recorded in Africa, 342 in the Americas, 259 in Europe and 649 in Asia. In the same time period close to 1 billion people were affected by foods in Asia whereas the corresponding fgures for Europe were around 4 million, for the Americas 28 million and Africa 22 million. The vast majority of people either injured, made homeless or otherwise affected by natural disasters on a global basis, i.e. 80–90% live in Asia. As a rough estimate foods appear to cause 20–25% of all deaths associated with natural disasters across Asia (World Disaster Report, 2009, USAID, 2007, UNU-IAS, 2008).