Central America and Haiti are suffering one of the worst droughts in decades due in part to the strong El Niño weather pattern, “with small-scale farmers sustaining heavy losses in staple crop production,” says the Famine Early Warning Network (FEWS NET) created by USAID. “Urgent food assistance is currently required for approximately 2.5 million people already experiencing … acute food insecurity. Assistance needs will increase with an early start to the 2016 lean season in February/March, with up to 3.5 million people in need of assistance.”
In many areas, rainfall was the lowest in 35 years for the period of Jan. 1-Sept. 10, says FEWS NET. El Niño is forecast to continue through the end of this year and into the spring crop season. In Haiti, losses in the hardest-hit area this year are estimated at 75-100 percent. In a “dry corridor” from northwestern Nicaragua through El Salvador, western Honduras and across south-central Guatemala, losses ranged from 10-30 percent for Primera-season maize and beans. “Losses for many small-scale farmers were much larger … with some reporting no harvests whatever.”
At the same time, food prices were rising, further constraining the ability of poor households to acquire food.
In early October, FEWS NET said El Niño contributed to “suppressed rainfall over northern East Africa and Central America and the Caribbean, significantly limiting agricultural and pastoral potential, and straining local livelihoods.” Above-average rainfall is expected in the Horn of Africa and Central Asia as well as in parts of North and South America. “Humanitarian agencies should prepare for high levels of assistance needs across many regions due to El Niño-related impacts on agricultural and pastoral production,” it said.