Bean and maize crops in central America have been ravaged first by water logging and then by dry weather, driving prices to record highs, the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has warned.
The bad news comes on top of a report showing that the urban poor in central American countries are being impacted severely and long-term by the economic crisis that started in 2008.
Prospects for the third crop of maize and beans in 2010-11, which is about to be harvested, are “poor, due to dry weather during the cropping season in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras”, the FAO warned in its Crop Prospects and Food Situation report this month. “The output of the 2010 second season maize and beans crops was reduced, reflecting water logging during the first part of the crop season and a prolonged dry spell during the second half.”
The FAO said that in Honduras and Nicaragua the prices of beans “reached record highs” in November 2010, then started to fall in December after the second-season harvest and the adoption of price control measures. But in El Salvador, the price of beans has continued to rise this year due to a poor harvest and reduced imports from Nicaragua.
Maximo Torero, director of markets, trade and institutions at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), a Washington-based think tank, said that the situation had been further exacerbated by the rising price of white corn that is imported by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. “The governments are doing what they can to constrain the effects of price increases, but in Guatemala particularly there is the prospect of malnutrition among the poorest people”, Torero said.
A report published by IFPRI shows that higher food prices and economic contraction has made the poorest people in central American poorer over the past three years.
“Central American families in urban areas have borne a major portion of the economic adjustments needed to absorb the negative impact of the international crises,” the report concluded.
A survey of Central American urban households showed that the survival strategies they have adopted included (i) replacement of more expensive foods with less expensive ones; (ii) spending less on recreation and other household items in order to cope with rising food prices; and (iii) prioritisation of food for children, with adjustments in consumption by adults where necessary.
The study summarised the impacts of the financial and economic crisis on the Central American urban poor as including “loss of employment due to massive layoffs”; increased underemployment and “informalisation” of labour relations; growth of small informal businesses to provide subsistence in the absence of formal jobs; reduction in the amount and frequency of remittances sent by family members abroad; limited or no capacity to save; and “worsening of personal relationships between household members”.