Rural households remain vulnerable to climatic extremes and nonfarm employment opportunities can help reduce income and livelihood vulnerabilities.
 
Bangladesh and Pakistan are among the countries most vulnerable to livelihood risks arising from frequent exposure to large-scale natural disasters. We study household responses to floods and storms in terms of short-term changes in their dependence on agriculture. Results show that rural households temporarily move away from agriculture in response to disaster then come back after a short period of time. They therefore remain vulnerable to climatic extremes. Development of nonfarm employment opportunities in rural areas can therefore be a useful public policy to lower their dependence on agriculture and reduce their income and livelihood vulnerabilities.