Subsistence farmers in the dry corridor of the region with food security in stress

At the beginning of March, El Niño event was established with weak intensity, forecasting temporal and spatial irregularity of the rain and high temperatures, with the probability of damage in Primera season crops during the phenological development and in Postrera sowings, with consecutive damages in the production of grains in subsistence agriculture of the Dry Corridor.

The prices of maize and beans in Honduras and El Salvador remain stable compared to the previous month, due to the supply of the last harvests (Postrera and Apante) and in Nicaragua maize prices are increasing; however, with respect to last year's average and for the last five years throughout the region, maize prices are higher, attributed to last year's losses, as to commercial speculation.

The price of coffee in March 2019 (International Coffee Organization -OIC-) was 97.50 USD cents per pound, the lowest since October 2006. This deterioration affects coffee production, which combined with the rise of rust would cause the reduction or elimination of cultivation areas, harming coffee growers and workers of the poorest regions, who seasonally migrate (October to March) to obtain income for family subsistence.

The poorest families that obtained income in the coffee harvest will subsist with the purchase of food in the short term. Once their resources are exhausted, they will resort to survival strategies, selling the working tools and small animals (chickens, pigs), buying less nutritious food, spacing the meal times, reducing the food rations and migrating outside the area of origin.

Subsistence farming communities face Stressed (IPC, Phase 2) food security due to deterioration in their livelihoods, recurrent crop losses, reduction in employment and price increases in basic goods; the poorest households in isolated communities without basic services could find themselves in Acute food insecurity in Crisis (IPC, Phase 3). The largest vulnerable population is estimated to be in the Dry Corridor of Honduras.