DROUGHT IN CENTRAL AMERICA - Food shortages

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Central America drought brings food shortages to more than 600,000 people: UN AFP - 7/20/2001

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - The drought which has hit farming regions of Honduras and Nicaragua have brought increased levels of poverty, and real hunger, to hundreds and thousands of people in those countries, UN and local government representatives said Thursday.

As the scale of the problem became evident, the Honduran government Thursday declared a state of emergency across 104 municipalities.

The United Nations' World Food Program estimates some 610,000 people are short of food as a result of crop failures brought by the drought - some 470,000 in Nicaragua and at least 140,000 in Honduras.

The problem has been compounded by falling prices for coffee, as many plantation owners send workers home, and the numbers affected could rise to one million, said the WFP director for Central America and the Caribbean, Francisco Roque.

The WFP, through its Food for Work schemes, is distributing basic food rations to families, but the situation remains desperate for thousands in the two countries, officials say.

Crops worst hit by the drought have been rice, corn, beans, sorghum and sesame.

The Honduran National Farmers' Association criticized the government for not having already sent food aid to dozens of families in the south of the country, which they said were in urgent need.

-- Anonymous, July 20, 2001

Answers

BBC - 21 July, 2001, 01:12 GMT 02:12 UK Central America 'faces food crisis'

Floods are threatening Central American food supplies By Mike Lanchin

The United Nations World Food Programme has warned of the threat of severe food shortages across Central America as droughts and flash floods devastate vital grain crops.

The UN calculates that as many as one million peasants in Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala will soon be facing a crisis situation as their yearly crops fail due to a persistent lack of rainfall.

Along Nicaragua's Atlantic coast, meanwhile, an estimate 9,000 Miskito Indians have lost their rice crops due to sudden flooding of the river earlier this week.

Central America could again be the scene of disaster, just six months after the earthquake in El Salvador and less than three years after Hurricane Mitch devastated vast areas of the region.

International appeal

A World Food Programme spokeswoman told the BBC that the UN organisation has launched an international emergency appeal as the deadly combination of drought and flash floods wreaked havoc on this year's crops.

She said that in conjunction with government and non-governmental agencies the UN is trying to deal with a growing food crisis.

The situation is reported to be worst in rural Honduras as well as in numerous provinces in northern Nicaragua and in eastern El Salvador.

Facing ruin

More than 300,000 smallholding farmers in Honduras have lost their entire crop due to late winter rains.

Most are subsistence farmers totally dependent on the yearly yields.

Their situation will become even more critical in September and October when they normally collect in the harvest.

In Nicaragua while some farmers prayed for rain, thousands of Miskito Indians along the rugged Atlantic coast face ruin because of sudden flash floods.

Peasant migration

Heavy rains over the past week have destroyed their rice plantations along the main river that runs through the remote jungle region, which bore some of the worst damage during Hurricane Mitch.

And as if this is not bad enough the crisis in Nicaragua has been further exacerbated by the rising flow of peasants migrating towards the major cities in search of food and work.

They are the latest victims of the crisis on Central America's poppy farms, crippled by low international prices and heavy debts at the bank.

-- Anonymous, July 21, 2001


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