This report provides a detailed account of the interrelationships between disasters and agricultural systems in four Pacific island countries: Fiji, Samoa, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. The authors note that traditional agricultural systems provided a high degree of food security. Although they have significantly changed over recent decades, many components of these systems remain in place, to varying degrees around the region. This continues to be an important mitigating force against the impact of disasters, as recent events in Samoa and Vanuatu have shown. The report argues that the impact of natural disasters on agriculture can be considerably reduced, first by better environmental management and, second, by finding ways to use traditional farming methods and adapt them to new uses, rather than the whole scale change to farming methods that has often been attempted in recent decades. This report is one in the series of reports commissioned by the South Pacific Disaster Reduction Programme. The purpose behind these reports has been to increase awareness of the importance of disaster reduction for sustainable development in the Pacific region, and to demonstrate that there are practical ways to reduce the exposure of island economies and communities to natural hazards. The 1990s were designated by the United Nations General Assembly to be the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction. Reduction of disaster risks remains a priority for the United Nations system and for the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC), the regional organization which is now implementing the South Pacific Disaster Reduction Programme.