Each month Christian Aid staff from Africa, Latin America and Asia will report on the growing struggle of people facing the 'silent tsunami' of rocketing food prices.
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Guatemala: Erwin Garzona, regional emergencies officer
October 2009
Erwin Garzona
I’ve just come back from a hunger assessment visit to Jocotán in the province of Chiquimula – one of the areas in Guatemala’s ‘dry corridor’ that is worst affected by the current drought.
Our partner Bethania is based in Jocotán, and runs a health centre and specialist infant malnutrition clinic here.
People here grow corn (maize) and beans. But the families I spoke to have told me that they have lost 50-70% of their crops this year. With such erratic rainfall, farmers have struggled to know when to plant. It’s been like a lottery that everyone has lost.
Those who chose to plant early (May) lost part of their harvest because the first rains were very, very heavy. Those who planted later (June) have had a poor harvest anyway because there has hardly been any rain since then.
Of the 16 families I spoke to, only one of them has enough food to last until the next harvest in 2010 – and that was a family with only one child to feed. Most other families expect to run out of food in November.
We’re anticipating the food crisis to peak between November 09 and June 10, and we’re working with Bethania and local community leaders to plan a response. Short term measures may include food aid, and in the medium term we may need to supply destitute families with the seeds they need to plant for the next harvest.
Unfortunately, this kind of acute crisis is not a one-off phenomenon in Jocotán. It happens every few years. That’s why, in the long-term, we’re focusing on helping families find ways to adapt to these extreme climatic variations.
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Guatemala: Ana Leticia Aguilar, programme officer
August 2008
Ana Leticia Aguilar
With prices going up by 17% last year, everyone is very pessimistic about the rising costs of living.
The poorest are the worst hit because they spend about 70% of their income on food, and it’s their staple foodstuffs – maize, rice, beans and eggs – that have been most affected by the price rises.
Out in communities, I am seeing a lot of uncertainty and despair. We’ve always worked with families who often go hungry, who struggle to feed their children. But the difference is that now hunger has become a permanent feature.
People talk about it all the time. They’re very worried and they can’t see a way out. The question I hear all of the time is ‘What are we going to do?’
My family is middle class, so our eating habits aren’t the same as the poorest families, who are the worst hit.
But the crisis affects us too. We used to eat meat three times a week but we’ve had to cut back to just once a week now. We’ve cut down on bread too.
People don’t think it’s going to get any better in the short term. We expect things to get worse over the next 12 months.
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Malawi: Jacob Nyirongo, livelihoods programme manager
August 2008
Jacob Nyirongo
Malawi is facing severe food shortages due to erratic rainfall over the last year.
We have had a very poor maize harvest. In districts such as Nsanje, Chikwawa and Karonga there were floods which also affected crops.
People have already started rationing their eating habits by having a single meal per day.
One of the signs that there is trouble is that the price of a 50kg bag of maize has already reached 2,000 kwacha (£7.50/ €9.50). This is three-to-four-times higher than the same period last year – and about three-quarters of the average family’s monthly income.
Fuel prices have just gone up by 25%, exacerbating the situation. This means hard times for low-income urban households.
It also means transporting food around the country is more expensive, and prices of other foodstuffs such as bread, meat, vegetables and fruit are expected to rise over the coming months.
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