By Thelma Mejía
TEGUCIGALPA, Sep 3 2002 (IPS)

In the 24 poorest municipalities of Honduras, some 150,000 families face famine as a result of a drought that has lasted since January, and continued deforestation is only exacerbating the problem, say experts and activists.

The governmental Permanent Committee for Contingencies, UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund), World Food Programme (WFP) and the European Union are all working to tackle the hunger problem in this Central American nation.

The regions hardest hit — central and southern Honduras — are also the least developed. They are further characterised by widespread deforestation and the depletion of water resources.

The lack of rainfall caused the grain crops to fail, “and now Honduras has to import 500 million dollars worth of agricultural products,” said Marvin Ponce, of the Coordinating Council of Peasant Organisations.

The government reached an agreement with WFP and UNICEF for the distribution of rations and the development of a “food for work” mechanism in the areas that are suffering most, Mariano Jiménez, minister of Agriculture and Livestock, told Tierramérica.

The authorities are also studying financing for irrigation systems that would benefit small farmers, and the possibility of providing farm insurance to protect them against lost harvests caused by drought or other natural disasters, he added.

But activist Ponce complains that “the funds did not arrive on time, and now it’s too late. The first harvest has already been lost and the banks only set up obstacles for the peasant farmers. In this context, who wants to plant crops?”

“Imagine how bad our situation must be that the organisations set up to provide help in emergencies have stayed here permanently. We have become a country that begs for donations in order to eat because we cannot produce enough to feed” the 6.7 million Honduran inhabitants, Rigoberto Sandoval, a farming and forestry expert, told Tierramérica.

What are needed are policies that give priority to these problems, because the depletion of natural resources is a key factor contributing to droughts and harvest loss, Sandoval said.

According to official figures, deforestation “eats up” 80,000 hectares annually. Land is cleared for low-production subsistence farming, but forest fires and illegal logging also contribute to the problem.

Furthermore, the Honduran people are still trying to recover from Hurricane Mitch, which hit Central America in October 1998. Honduras bore the brunt of the storm, suffering 14,000 deaths, two million people left homeless and a 20-year reversal in national economic development.

Hurricane Mitch also revealed the country’s environmental fragility. As a result of deforestation and other manmade ecological problems, any intense rainfall produces flooding. And if the temperate winter climate prolongs, fields dry up, as do the reservoirs of potable water.

The intensity of the rainy winter season depends on many factors, and this year there is the added variable of El Niño, the warm current that periodically crosses the Pacific Ocean, causing extreme weather fluctuations in its wake.

The government is working to implement an effective agrarian policy, said minister Jiménez. Until now there have only been “palliative measures to confront the farm crisis. We want to make the leap to prevent the need to ‘put out fires’ that arises every time there is a drought or famine,” he added.

* Tierramérica is a specialised news service (www.tierramerica.net) produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme.

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