 Around the world disasters are producing unprecedented levels of damage and loss in agriculture. According to FAO's new impact of disasters on agriculture and food security 2023 report, disasters are increasing in severity and frequency. While in the 1970s the world experienced about 100 disasters per year, over the past 20 years that number has quadrupled. These events compromise food security and undermine the sustainability of the agriculture sector. And yet data for describing the impact of disasters on agriculture and agri-food systems is partial and inconsistent. This is especially problematic for the fisheries, aquaculture and forestry sub-sectors. More and better data are needed to shape policies and solutions for risk reduction and resilience building in agriculture. This new FAO report brings the first ever global level estimation of the impact of disasters on agriculture. Over the last 30 years an estimated 3.8 trillion US dollars worth of crops and livestock production has been lost due to disaster events. That corresponds to an average loss of 123 billion US dollars per year equivalent to 5% of annual global agricultural GDP. Over the past 30 years disasters inflicted the highest relative losses on lower and lower middle-income countries. Understanding interconnected risks and their drivers is essential to building resilient agri-food systems. These disaster risk reduction good practices can generate impressive results performing over two times better than previously used practices. Proactive targeted investments in farm level disaster risk reduction good practices can build resilience. Anticipatory actions informed by early warning are cost effective in reducing risk and mitigating the impact of disasters. For every one US dollar invested in anticipatory actions rural families can gain up to seven dollars in benefits and avoided agricultural losses. Combined approaches prove successful during the desert locust outbreak in the Horn of Africa between 2020 and 2021 preventing further crisis in a region already beset by hunger. Targeted investments in proactive disaster risk reduction can shield our food sources and protect agri-food systems.