Poor harvests caused by drought in parts of Central America could leave more than two million people hungry, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday, warning climate change was creating drier conditions in the region.
Lower than average rainfall in June and July has led to major crop losses for small-scale maize and bean farmers in Central America’s “Dry Corridor”, which runs through Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua.
This means subsistence farmers will not have enough food to eat or sell in the coming months, and have no food supplies to see them through the lean time between harvests.
“Climate-related disasters are clearly becoming more frequent and causing more damage,” Miguel Barreto, WFP’s regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by e-mail.
“Projected temperature increases and rainfall shortages in the Dry Corridor are of particular concern.”
The United Nations says Central America is one of the regions most vulnerable to extreme weather linked to climate change.
The region was hit hard by consecutive years of drought from 2014 to mid-2016, which left millions in need of food aid.
“The warning this year is…