The Central American Dry Corridor is a 1,600-kilometer-long stretch of land that runs through Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, and where extreme climate events occur, such as long periods of drought that affect the well-being and livelihood of hundreds. of thousands of people.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO, some 10 million people live in the Dry Corridor Central American. Several of them are dedicated to agriculture, especially the production of basic grains.
Because at least half of that territory has been classified as a “drought zone with high effects”, the sowing of grains is delayed, as farmers wait for the first rains to begin sowing.
Camotán, a largely rural municipality in Chiquimula, Guatemala, is an example of how a lack of rain has delayed the planting of some crops.
“My three children work in the planting and cutting, but now they don’t have work because it hasn’t rained, and if it doesn’t rain, it won’t be planted. We can’t plant like that either,” he told the Voice of America María Carlota García, 38 years old, resident of the Lantiquin village, in Camotán.
Self-consumption agriculture in this region consists mainly of corn and beans, whose planting is carried out in two cycles, the first from May to October and the second from August to December.
Although the National Institute of Seismology, Volcanology, Meteorology and Hydrology of Guatemala announced the start of the rainy season for May, it also warned that rainfall would be “below normal” in some departments of Guatemala.
“The lack of rain affects not only subsistence farmers but also those who market crops, since they cannot be planted if there is no moisture in the soil. Humidity activates the nutrients in the soil with which the plant is fed” , explained to the VOA the agronomist Douglas González.
The main cause of the drought in Central America is “El Niño”, a climatic phenomenon that occurs every two to seven years and causes episodes of drought or uncontrolled rain. At least in Central America, this phenomenon has already worsened the food situation of millions of people, especially those who live in the Dry Corridor, according to a study published in May by the World Food Program (WFP) and Action Against Hunger (ACH).
“Some 486,000 people in the four countries of the Dry Corridor were exposed to a severe drought in 2023. Following the onset of El Niño, total rainfall reached historically low levels in 40 years, in much of the Central American Dry Corridor,” explains the WFP. .
But not only Guatemala has had less rain. Honduras also reported below-average rainfall and localized flooding. Consequently, 2.4 million Hondurans, equivalent to 25% of the population, were in crisis or severe acute food insecurity.
“While production of basic grains was affected, supply was assured through imports,” the report added.
Contrary to Honduras and Guatemala, in El Salvador there were increases in rainfall due to Tropical Storm Pilar, according to WFP estimates, so the organization considers that what caused food insecurity in that country were “food prices, which “They have been increasing since 2021, and they affect families that depend on agriculture, livestock, fishing and informal trade.”
In Nicaragua, the Dry Corridor only received 30% of the expected seasonal precipitation, affecting some 67,000 small farms with subsistence agriculture.
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