El
Niño, a weather phenomenon characterized by abnormal warming of surface waters
in the eastern Pacific Ocean has caused major decline in cereal production in
Central America, NaijaAgroNet
reports.
Early
estimates from Central America’s main de prima harvest suggest declines
of as much as 60 per cent of maize and 80 per cent of beans due to dry weather
El Niño-related dry spells are known to delay planting, reduce planting areas
and stifle crop development
According
to Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), prolonged dry weather associated
with the El Niño phenomenon has severely reduced this year’s cereal outputs in
El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, putting a large numbers of
farmers in need of agricultural assistance as the sub-region tries to recover
amidst ongoing dryness. This, NaijaAgroNet learnt, is the second consecutive year that the region's
main season cereal harvest has been negatively affected by severe dry weather
related to El Niño.
The Central American Agricultural Council -- headed by agriculture ministers of
the sub-region – has declared a state of alert after hundreds of thousands of
subsistence farmers have suffered the partial or total loss of their crops
planted for the main grain season that runs from May to September.
With
hundreds of thousands of families affected by severe food losses, the
governments of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua have begun
distributing agricultural aid packages, including seeds, fertilizers and
irrigation pumps, to help farmers recover as much as possible in the second
planting season, now under way, NaijaAgroNet
reports.
The Economist in FAO’s Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS) unit
covering Latin America, Felix Baquedano, said, “This year's El Niño's impacts
are even more intense than last's. After two years of intensifying dry weather,
it’s critical that we support farmers to recuperate some of their losses by
helping them achieve stronger yields in the second season,”
Cyriacus
Nnaji/GEE
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Pix: Felix Baquedano,
