A vicious circle

In several regions in Guatemala and El Salvador, it did not rain in June, July or August 2001 causing 80 per cent of crops to fail. In Nicaragua losses were as high as 88 per cent, while in southern, central and western parts of Honduras the lack of rain led to a complete crop failure.

Although farming has always been difficult in these areas, the problem escalated when Hurricane Mitch first destroyed crops in 1998. One villager in Piedras Negras, a mountain village in north-eastern Guatemala explained, "There was only one harvest the following season [after Mitch], and a year ago the May harvest failed and the September harvest achieved only moderate results."

The numerous disasters experienced by this forgotten mountain-top region of Guatemala is typical of the rest of Central America. Crops here were adversely affected in 1997 and 1998 by the El Niño phenomenon; and later wiped out by the devastation from Hurricane Mitch, by flooding and minor droughts in 1999 and by the lack of rain in 2001.

In El Salvador, two major earthquakes increased the despair and sense of hopelessness. Comments such as this one by Cristóbal Sánchez, the community leader of El Potrero in the department of Morazán, can be heard all too often: "The drought was the last straw; I lost 90 per cent of my crop."

Today, throughout the region, families in poor farming communities no longer have the reserves to cope with the drought and are finding it nearly impossible to recover as one disaster follows another.

Impasse

When there is sufficient rainfall, farmers are able to produce enough maize and beans for food, exchanging any surplus for other products, including eggs and meat, which are very scarce in these communities. "Now, the situation is so bad that they do not have enough food to eat and sometimes they even have to resort to eating the seeds that they have set aside for the next planting season," explains Douglas Reimer, the Federation's regional disaster preparedness delegate.

As a result, malnutrition is the primary problem within affected communities. Guatemala has the highest rate of malnutrition in the region. According to government surveys, an estimated 60,000 Guatemalan children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition with 6,000 at risk of dying. The government also reports that 102 of the country's 331 municipalities are suffering from food insecurity and in need of assistance.

The situation in Guatemala is typical of the overall situation in Central America. Although there have been no reports of deaths, the percentage of people affected by food insecurity in Honduras has risen considerably. Similarly, in Nicaragua there are 115,400 people in urgent need of aid, and the total number of people affected is approximately 187,645. The country least affected by the droughts is Costa Rica, although it is now facing problems caused by large numbers of Nicaraguans pouring into the country in an attempt to escape the bleak situation in their own country.

Experts in drought relief say one of the most effective solutions to the problem is for rural communties to diversify their economic base. In Central America, this means men getting seasonal employment on coffee plantations to earn extra income. But falling prices for coffee on world markets has meant less work. The Salvadorean Coffee Council reported that real coffee prices are lower than they have been in the past 100 years.
Authorities are worried about the social consequences of the drought and high unemployment in the coffee growing areas. One representative of the Coffee Growers' Association in El Salvador is quoted as saying: "Out of every ten coffee workers, only five are working, and the other five have children to feed and what can they do?"

Sustainable development

To relieve the current crisis everyone agrees that food aid is not enough. As one peasant farmer said in an interview with the BBC, "To make the land fertile, we don't only need rain, but bank loans and education so we don't waste what the land can give us."
The WFP is pushing governments in the region to increase social spending and plans to put in place medium-term programmes to enable poor farmers to be more self-sufficient and less vulnerable to climate swings. "One reason [for the chronic hunger]", explains Francisco Roque, "is the lack of equality in terms of access to welfare and to wealth in this continent."

The Federation is also working with the local National Societies to help people survive the crisis and prepare for the next one. Seeds and fertilizer are being distributed, and agronomists are working with the Red Cross to train farmers in effective agricultural practices during a drought.

An uncertain future

South and Central America are now feeling the effects of the El Niño phenomenon. Rainfall in July and August is expected to be half the normal amount, explains Oscar Fernández, general coordinator for the Red Cross Disaster Management Office in Honduras.
If these predictions prove correct, another disaster will be added to the long succession of adversities suffered in the region, worsening the plight of subsistence farmers. Then Central America will find itself in the grip of malnutrition and disease, with its inhabitants dying a slow death.