CIAT’s agroforestry project on biodiversity and other ecosystem services

Photo credit: CIAT Blog

Juan Delgado, a farmer in Chalatenango, is collecting beans growing on trees within his Agroforestry system

Agroforestry systems: Preliminary lessons learned with small farmers in El Salvador

by ciatblog

 

“Smooth sailing” is the way to describe the progress made by CIAT’s agroforestry project on biodiversity and other ecosystem services.

The project aims to promote the adaptation and dissemination of agroforestry production systems as options that can eco-efficiently respond to climate change, while restoring the provision of key ecosystem services. The project collaborates with the farmers and local organizations in northern El Salvador.

It is supported by the Salvadoran Ministry for the Environment and Natural Resources (MARN, its Spanish acronym) and sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). It works in close collaboration with Columbia University’s Earth Institute, La Montañona Community, the Salvadoran Research Program on Development and Environment (PRISMA, its Spanish acronym), and CIAT’s Soils Research Area.

Read the full article: CIAT Blog

Drought: a creeping humanitarian crisis in Central America

Photo credit: Pixabay

Guatemala, Altaverapaz, Coban

UN: drought in Central America has pushed 2.5m people into food insecurity

Subsistence farmers, farm labourers and low-income families especially at risk as UN warns of ‘creeping humanitarian crisis’

A drawn-out drought in Central America has pushed 2.5 million people in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador into food insecurity, the UN warned Friday.

The drought in the three countries is “turning into a creeping humanitarian crisis”, Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN’s humanitarian agency, told reporters in Geneva.

Subsistence farmers, farm labourers and low-income families were especially at risk, with young children and pregnant women considered the most vulnerable, he said.

A full 80% of farmers in the worst-hit areas of El Salvador had reported losing all of their crops, while 75% of maize and bean crops in Honduras and Guatemala had failed.

The lack of rain has also resulted in the death of thousands of cattle.

“In the coming months, food insecurity is expected to get worse as families deplete their food stocks,” Laerke warned.

Read the full article: The Guardian