Hunger threatens 4.6 million people in Guatemala

Around 4.6 million people in Guatemala face food insecurity, according to the NGO Oxfam, and their situation is also threatened by the effects of the El Niño phenomenon, which in previous years has caused losses in corn and bean crops, essential for the subsistence of the most vulnerable families.

The official climate outlook points to a "significantly high probability" that El Niño could form between May and July.

The phenomenon is characterized by extreme conditions: high temperatures and drought, or floods that mainly affect the dry corridor, a semi-arid region in Central America that is more susceptible to drought or floods, depending on the behavior of the rains.

So far, the state weather agency is forecasting a "normal" rainy season.

However, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) considers that the mere presence of El Niño is a threat to agriculture, regardless of its intensity;

weak phenomena have caused considerable losses in the agricultural sector.

In 2018, it caused prolonged heat waves and no rain for up to 40 days, resulting in $44 million in lost corn production, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

"The climatic conditions are rather an additional aggravating factor to inequality, exclusion and lack of productive economic policies to favor the development of people in poverty, mainly those who live in rural areas," maintains the researcher from Rafael University Landívar Raúl Maas.

From rural territories, the increase in cases of acute malnutrition is reported and as of April 23, the health authorities confirm the death of six children under two years of age, as a consequence of the nutritional deficit, two of them had clinical signs of Kwashiorkor.

In 2022, acute malnutrition caused the death of 18 children under the age of five, according to official data.

Until mid-April, there was an increase of 2,287 cases (44%) of acute malnutrition compared to the previous year, according to reports from the National Information System for Food and Nutrition Security (Siinsan) of the Ministry of Health.

Malnutrition cases are increasing, precisely in the areas that have reported losses due to El Niño.

“The population that is already in a situation of precarious food insecurity, which requires support from the state and other actors to access basic food, will be affected by the El Niño phenomenon,” says Iván Aguilar, from Oxfam Central America.

The Ministry of Agriculture has programs for agricultural insurance, stipends and improved seeds, with a budget close to 20 million dollars for this year.

The magnitude and territorial scope of the impact of El Niño is unknown, but if the experience of other years is taken into account, we know that the dry corridor will be one of the regions with the greatest complications, he adds.

The dry corridor represents 10% of the total territory of Guatemala, 80% of its inhabitants live in poverty and 30% in extreme poverty.

In that region, as in other parts of the country, there is a lack of water supply and access to health and education services is limited, and in many cases they are provided by humanitarian aid organizations.

Antigua Al Rescate (AAR) is one of the organizations that provides assistance to families in the dry corridor who live in food insecurity.

His mobile nutritional recovery program serves some 278 families each month, each with one to three underweight children.

“We are in the worst season, very hot and facing a scenario of drought or landslides due to the rains,” warns Sofía Letona, from AAR.

politicians and hunger

The political campaign, heading to the general elections on June 25, brings some relief to some communities in poverty.

Some parties give away food, utensils or money that are a palliative for families that, for example, cannot raise 30 dollars to buy two cans of powdered milk with which a baby is fed for a month, says Letona.

In its report presented this week, the Guatemalan Electoral Observation Mission reports two cases of food deliveries that belonged to municipal social programs, in which public workers participated, during campaign activities.

Aguilar considers that the greatest impact will be observed at the end of 2023 and during the next year, when the reserves of basic grains are depleted and low yields or crop losses are experienced.

Losing corn and beans jeopardizes rural families, especially considering that corn has doubled in price in the last five years.

The worsening of living conditions will coincide with the replacement of the government in Guatemala, which brings with it a deepening of the institutional weaknesses to respond to the needs of the population, says Letona, since each government changes many of the technical personnel that already He knows the needs of the country and how the social assistance programs work.

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