Guatemala families struggle for food in Central American drought

Guatemala families struggle for food in Central American drought

For hundreds of thousands of farmers in Guatemala, this year's harvest is over before it has even begun. The fields in the east of the country are yellow, the ground bone-dry.

For 74-year-old Marco Tulio Lopez Diaz, the situation is getting desperate. He has worked on his land in the village of San Miguel near Chiquimula his whole life.
It is a four-hour drive from the capital.
Farming is all that he knows, but with 80% of his corn crops dead and the ones that have survived providing no grain, he is hugely worried.
Marco Tulio lives in what is known as the Dry Corridor.

It is a drought-prone area of Central America that runs across El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.
"We've often had tough droughts but not like this year," he says.
"We sowed the seeds, the plants are here but they've not produced anything. This year we've not been able to harvest."

Struggling smallholders

People in this part of Guatemala are smallholders who grow corn and beans.                
They cultivate enough to provide food for their families.
In a good year, they can grow surplus to sell or store, but after several difficult seasons, they have run out of stocks.
According to Action against Hunger, four out of the last six years have seen below-average rainfall.
Government data shows that by July this year, 400mm of rain had fallen in the area of Chiquimula - that is half of what it would be normally.
Other parts of the Dry Corridor have received even less rain.
Farmers now go for weeks without any rain at all, which is damaging during the crucial crop-growing period.
Then, when it does rain, it often comes with such force that the parched earth cannot soak it all up and the crops drown.

The impact of El Nino

Many experts blame the change in weather patterns on El Nino

Last year Guatemala, along with other Central American governments, declared a state of emergency because of the drought.
The problem is not expected to get any better any time soon.
The drought comes on top of the recent coffee-rust crisis which has swept through the region's coffee-growing communities.
Crop yields have fallen and that has led to unemployment.
Mr Tulio says the younger generations are increasingly heading to local towns to work - anything to avoid going into agriculture.
"This is a large area of impact and so people have two choices," says Diego Recalde who represents the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Guatemala.
"They look for other jobs in more urban areas in each of these countries or migrate through Mexico to the US."
In Guatemala, it is estimated that about 900,000 people have been hit by the drought in the Dry Corridor.
According to Maria Bernardez who is a food expert for the European Commission Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection Office, more widely in Central America as many as 2.5 million people are affected.

No rain, no food

The drought is having an impact on people's health.
Doctor Juan Manuel Mejia works at the Nutritional Recovery Centre in the nearby town of Jocotan.
He is performing a check-up on four-year-old Claudia.