The 'Boxing Day' tsunami - effects and responses among farmers in Maldives
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2006
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Melbourne Authors
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Agriculture and Food Systems
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Masters Research thesis
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The `Boxing Day' tsunami of 26 December 2004 devastated coastal areas of eight countries within and surrounding the Indian Ocean, including Maldives. More than 200,000 coastal inhabitants in the affected countries lost their lives; those remaining in the affected areas faced severe disruptions and hardships. Maldives is an atoll island nation in the Indian Ocean. The exclusively low-lying nature of the islands of Maldives make them vulnerable to natural hazards such as tsunamis, wave surges from tropical storms and potential sea-level rise.
Agriculture plays an important role as a source of income for the rural population of Maldives. It is carried out in mixed home gardens, settled rain-fed cropping fields, bush fallow shifting cultivation areas and year-round horticultural production fields across agricultural islands of Maldives. Waves of over four metres in height, resulting from the tsunami, swept across the atolls and islands of Maldives. The islands suffered massive physical destruction to structures and facilities. Farming communities, in particular, lost homestead trees, crops, buildings and infrastructure through wave action and inundation. Agricultural lands were inundated, and inland soils and water reservoirs were contaminated with seawater and detritus.
This study, undertaken a year after the tsunami, sets out to determine the main effects of the tsunami on the livelihoods of the farming communities of Maldives. Social research methods were used to catalogue the immediate and long-term strategies that affected farmers adopted to deal with losses of food, income and productivity of lands. Case studies of three affected islands were used to explore the effects the tsunami had on livelihoods of farmers on these islands, according to the residents. Assessments were carried out on soils and groundwaters of case study islands to measure the possible long-term effect of the tsunami on farming areas.
The study revealed that continued disaster aid, and improvement of people's awareness of natural hazards and disaster relief processes among farmers and agency staff are important for the sustainability of agricultural livelihoods in Maldives. Building institutional capacity in monitoring and assessment of soil and groundwater quality were also noted to be essential. Suggestions for assisting recovery of farming households are discussed, based on views of farmers, and these could be of use to international development organizations and local institutions, to assist in future planning and development of areas that are vulnerable to natural hazards in Maldives.
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Agriculture, Agriculture forecasting, Agriculture research, Divehi language, Farmers, Indian Ocean Tsunami, 2004, Maldives, Safety measures, Tsunamis