PIE Academy: Disaster Assessment for Production Agriculture

This course offers online training about understanding the types of agricultural production and assets at risk of being impacted by different hazard/disaster events and understanding how to assess the agricultural impacts of such events. You will learn what makes the agricultural sector unique when it comes to disaster impact assessment, methods for estimating the agricultural impacts of disaster events, and how you should communicate about the agricultural impacts of disaster events once you’ve completed an assessment.

This course was developed using examples of events that have occurred over the last decade in Florida and for situations most applicable to the Florida Cooperative Extension System and Floridians; however, the methods presented can be adapted for use in other states or regions or to explore the impacts of other types of hazard events that can impact agricultural production.  The following groups will find this material useful as they prepare for or navigate through hazard/disaster events.

• Agricultural producers
• Leaders and practitioners involved with industry associations or other organizations involved with production agriculture 
• Policymakers
• Members of the Cooperative Extension System 
• Representatives of Non-governmental organizations (NGOs)  involved with production agriculture

As you will learn throughout this course, hazard/disaster events can have significant impacts on production agriculture. This course focuses on the direct economic losses experienced by operations directly involved in the production of crops, animals, and animal products. This course will also highlight the need for state- and national-level collaboration to share data and insights on the agricultural impacts of disaster events.