Food insecurity is expected to increase in southwest Honduras beginning in April. In 2006, 8,040 families were affected by an extended drought in the zone known as the corredor seco sur, or the southern dry corridor, due to its ecological degradation and proneness to drought, which caused losses of up to 65 percent in their postrera production. Of these households, 3,618 subsistence-farming families have a low response capacity to cope with the situation, and their food reserves have diminished drastically. When the normal hunger season begins in April, exacerbated by the end of the demand for labor in agro-industry, these families will likely face a food access crisis. If the primera sowing starts as usual, food aid assistance will be required until June, but if El Niño delays the primera rains, assistance will be needed until October/November.

Food security is stable in the rest of the country. Households still have food reserves from the postrera harvest that ended in December, and poor households’ access to food is good from the income from the sale of labor in the agro-industry. However, the hunger season starts in April, which will have a higher-than-normal impact on household access to food as a result of the increased cost of the basic food basket, especially for households already facing chronic food insecurity.

Seasonal calendar 2007

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Food security situation

Food security is stable for most households. Families still have food reserves from the postrera harvest that ended in December, and poor households’ access to food is good from the income from the sale of labor in agro-industry. However, 6,700 families face chronic food insecurity in the Choluteca, Francisco Morazán, Intibucá, La Paz, Lempira, Olancho and Valle departments.

The high demand for labor in the agroindustrial sector, which represents an important source of employment from November to March for poor rural households, is about to end. This will reduce labor opportunities and access to food, which will be further aggravated by the high price of the basic food basket. According to the Central Bank of Honduras, the price of the basic food basket increased by 34 percent in February, including a 30 percent increase in the consumer maize price since December (Figure 1).

Under normal conditions, this hunger season lasts until June, when demand for unskilled labor increases at the beginning of the agricultural cycle for staple cereal planting. Food availability through subsistence production will increase food security in August with the harvesting of the primera crop. If the beginning of the primera rainy season is delayed by the El Niño phenomenon, there could be a partial or total loss of the primera crops, and the hunger season could extend to September, when the agricultural activities for the postrera season begin. In this case, the 6,700 families in chronic food insecurity could require assistance until October/November.

Figure I. Maize price trends at the consumer and international market levels
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Source: SIMPHA March 2007, JUNAC February 2007

Postrera losses will increase food insecurity in the south

A more severe hunger season will occur in the southern dry corridor, an ecologically degraded area in the southwest of Honduras. This corridor is characterized by a negative water balance, mainly as a result of the indiscriminate felling of trees and burning of forests, extensive grazing and failure to apply adequate agricultural soil and water conservation practices.

According to monitoring carried out in the dry corridor by the institutions of the Food and Nutrition Security Coalition, the 2006/07 staple cereal production cycle was poor due to the extended drought from June to September 2006. Maize crops averaged a loss of 50 percent, and one-fourth of the communities lost between 50 and 65 percent of their crops. These losses have had a negative effect on 40 percent of small subsistence-producing households in the corridor (8,040 families), drastically reducing their food reserves. Forty-five percent of these families (3,618 families, which are part of the 6,700 families currently facing food insecurity) have a low response capacity to food deficits, mainly because of a lack of sources of employment and reduced access to productive resources (such as land and inputs).

Figure 2. Dry corridor/municipalities with maize losses, 2006/07 FULL-SIZE IMAGE   Red areas represent 50 percent maize losses; crossed areas comprise the southern dry corridor. Source: SAN/Grupo Sur Coalition, March 2007

The effects of the food insecurity in the zone are reflected in the reduced quantity and diversity of food in the diets of the most vulnerable households, as well as in the nutritional status of children under 5 years of age. The preliminary results of a nutritional monitoring study carried out by the Food and Nutrition Security Coalition, based on the nutritional data collected periodically by the Ministry of Health, show severe levels of stunting (above 5 percent) in some of the Choluteca, southern Francisco Morazán, El Paraíso and Valle municipalities.

To respond to this food insecurity, interventions in the productive sector and in food relief should be undertaken, keeping in mind the zone's recurrent droughts and low staple cereal production and yields. The 3,618 households with low response capacity to crop losses will need immediate relief assistance to prevent a food crisis from April to June. If the El Niño phenomenon delays the primera rains and combines with the normal dry spell (canicula) to produce a period of drought from mid-July to mid-August, the food availability from local production would depend upon the postrera harvest, and the period of food relief would extend until October or November. The rest of the 8,040 families that lost their crops will also be more vulnerable to food insecurity during the hunger season, and could also require food assistance. On the production side, high-quality short-cycle maize seed (90 days) and other inputs should be subsidized and small irrigation systems should be installed to enable a good harvest in August, which can be supported through the Agriculture and Livestock Secretariat’s technology voucher (bono tecnológico).

Food assistance should be targeted to the neediest families in the communities that were most affected by crop losses. With this goal in mind, a participatory evaluation should be carried out involving the affected families and local authorities; sufficient distribution channels are necessary to ensure that the assistance reaches the affected families; and an integrated intervention plan should be prepared that shows short, medium and long-term effects throughout the dry corridor, with the participation of institutions working with the Food and Nutrition Security Coalition.