Working Group on Agriculture

	Components
p. 4 of 5 BACK | NEXT Component 1: Facilitating Cross-Border Agricultural Trade and Investment Component 2: Promoting Public-Private Partnerships for Sharing Agricultural Information Component 3: Enhancing Capacity in Agricultural Science and Technology Component 4: Establishing Emergency Response Mechanisms for Agricultural and Natural Resource Crises Component 5: Strengthening Institutional Linkages and Mechanisms for Cooperation

Establishing Emergency Response Mechanisms for Agricultural and Natural Resource Crises

• Agriculture-related emergencies, calamities, and natural disasters, such as the spread of animal disease, floods, pest infestation, and forest fires, could result in huge economic losses in the GMS. Today, one of the main areas of focus is transboundary animal diseases (TADs), some of which are infectious to human beings, causing severe illness and death. Economically important TADs, such as foot-and-mouth disease, classical swine fever, and highly pathogenic avian influenza, are widely spread in large parts of Southeast Asia and the People's Republic of China.
• TADs can have far-reaching socioeconomic impacts on regional and international trade, food safety, public health, and tourism. They affect particularly the livelihoods of poor farmers for whom livestock is often the only source of income.