By Ronald Joshua

ROME | SAN SALVADOR (IDN) – Family farming accounts for about 50% of Agricultural Gross Domestic Product in Central America. It employs a huge percentage of agricultural working force, ranging from 36% in Costa Rica) to 76% in Honduras.

According to the Rome-based International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the UN agency dedicated to rural development, about 2.3 million families in the region work in family farming.

It is estimated that 6 in 10 family farmers face food insecurity and 65% live in poverty. Family farms’ heads are, in 85% of the cases, male. Their average age is 49. Family farms’ average extension is 1.13 ha.

With this in view, IFAD has joined hands with PRISMA-OXFAM-RIMISP Consortium to launch in San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, a Regional Rural Dialogue Programme (PDRR), a network of family farmers’ organizations, focused on Central America and the Dominican Republic.…

Analysis by Rodney Reynolds

NEW YORK (IDN) – The UK-based charity Oxfam has warned that El Nino has triggered one of the worst droughts in the history of Latin America and the Caribbean causing devastation to food crops and threatening food shortages.

“Families across Latin America are running out of food and options, as farmers report another failed harvest due to intense and unpredictable weather patterns compounded by El Niño,” said Oxfam in a report released May 5. 

Currently, at least 3.5 million people in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador do not have enough to eat and, at least 7 million people are affected by El Nino across Latin America and the Caribbean.

The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Stephen O’Brien said on April 26 that with millions of people across the world affected by droughts, floods and other extreme weather events triggered by El Niño, the international community must act now to address urgent humanitarian needs and support …