Contents
I. INTRODUCTION
II. AGROSOCIOECONOMIC DATA
- 1. Geographical context
- 2. Basic macroeconomic data
III. AVAILABILITY OF BASIC FOODS
- 1. Impact of Hurricane Mitch
- 2. Damage inflicted on the farming sector by Hurricane Mitch
- 3. Trends in food production
- 4. Food imports and exports
IV. FOOD-SUPPLY STABILITY
- 1. Impact of Hurricane Mitch on regional markets
- 2. Food balances
- 3. Analysis of farm credit
- 4. Trends in prices of basic grains
V. ACCESS TO BASIC FOODS
- 1. Trends in food basket and its cost
- 2. Overall poverty situation
- 3. Composition of households in the region
- 4. Mechanisms for disaster prevention and relief
- 5. The international community and emergency aid
- 6. Impact on internal and external migration
- 7. National policies on food security
VI. BIOLOGICAL UTILIZATION OF FOODS
- 1. Importance of cereals to dietary intake
- 2. Habits and customs
- 3. Malnutrition
- 4. Deficiencies in micronutrients
VII. GENERAL CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
VIII. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS BY COUNTRY
IX. ANNEXES
I. INTRODUCTION
Central America is well known to be a region vulnerable to natural disasters, whether hurricanes, droughts or earthquakes. During the final week of October 1998, Hurricane Mitch - arguably the worst natural disaster of the 20th Century - hit five of the region's six countries (Costa Rica is not included in this study), and Honduras and Nicaragua in particular. Its devastating force reached category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale. The hurricane brought sustained winds of 288 km/h and gusts of up to 340 km/h.1
Hurricane Mitch hit a region that was just recovering from the effects of the EI-Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO), with its formidable droughts, forest fires and floods. Moreover, it struck the region at a time when global economic growth had been forecast at 3 percent and annual growth for five of the six countries (including Belize) had been forecast at above four percent.
The destructive economic effects were considerable. According to data from ECLAC,2 the damage totalled US$6 018 million, equivalent to 12.3 percent of the Regional Gross Domestic Product, 42 percent of exports, 67 percent of gross fixed investments and 34.3 percent of the countries' External Debt (excluding Belize).
The hurricane brought renewed distress to the people of Central America, who had only recently begun to enjoy peace, following a period marked by armed conflict and the presence of military forces in the rural areas of four of the five countries affected by Mitch.
The destruction was especially significant among the rural population of small producers of basic grains (maize, beans and rice), because this sector of the population lives and farms on alluvial lands, floodplains and hillsides with poor soil and limited soil-management or soil-conservation systems.
The impact of Hurricane Mitch highlighted a fact that other meteorological phenomena had shown in the past, albeit with less force: despite the fact that it is naturally located in the path of storms and hurricanes, the Central American region suffers from a lack of systems for prevention, early warning, relief and rehabilitation following the passage of these cyclonic events. Added to this, there is the considerable vulnerability of the population - especially those living in rural areas and outlying city districts, and in the marginal districts of the major cities of Central America.
Food insecurity is intensified and exacerbated during the months following a disaster, and national response capacities are very limited and poor in content, even though international aid agencies have always done everything possible to relieve food shortages among the population at risk. This situation once again highlights the need to consider how national and local capacities can be improved and strengthened, so as to provide an immediate response to emergency situations. That response must be provided in particular by union organizations and civil society, together with governments, as the institutions responsible for creating the necessary conditions for attending to the needs of people afflicted by disasters.
The difficulties involved in restoring production immediately after these events are obvious. It is quite clear that we must address those difficulties and prepare a medium-term strategy designed to ensure that producers can resume their productive activities, especially when soils have suffered severe damage and equipment and tools for basic farming and weed control have been lost.
II. AGROSOCIOECONOMIC DATA
1. Geographical context
The Central American region is located between the two great continental blocks that make up North and South America, on a narrow isthmus that comprises seven nations: Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, which together make up the Central American Isthmus.
These countries occupy a surface area of 522 418 km2. Nicaragua is the largest country, with 129 494 km2 (corresponding to 24.8 percent of the total area), followed by Honduras, with 111 888 km2 (21.4 percent); and Guatemala, with 108 889 km2 (20.8 percent). These three countries account for 67 percent of the region's total surface area. El Salvador is the smallest country, with 21 040 km2, equivalent to four 4 percent of regional territory. See Table 1 and Chart 1, below.
Chart 1
Table 1 Surface areas of countries of Central America
Country |
km2
|
Belize |
22965
|
Guatemala |
108889
|
El Salvador |
21040
|
Honduras |
111888
|
Nicaragua |
129494
|
Costa Rica |
51060
|
Panama |
77082
|
Total |
522418
|
Geologically, the region is quite unique, since it marks the meeting-point of six tectonic plates, which are highly active and mobile - especially the Coco and Caribbean plates. This affects the coast of the Central American Pacific Ocean in particular, causing violent earthquakes in all countries in the region, and total damage of more than US$15 000 million. Recently, during the months of January and February 2001, El Salvador was shaken by two violent earthquakes and innumerable aftershocks, which left at least 1 100 people dead, destroyed 155 000 homes and damaged a further 145 711 homes, affecting some 1.5 million people.3
Geographically, the Central American region is composed of high mountains and volcanoes (27 of which are active in the coastal region of the Pacific Ocean, in a "line of fire" less than 500 km long), intra-mountain valleys and alluvial and coastal plains.
Due to its location in the Caribbean basin, the region is susceptible to the impact of hurricanes, with Honduras and Nicaragua the most prone to penetration, with a 36 percent4 chance and, specifically, the Atlantic coasts of both countries, primarily inhabited by indigenous populations living in rustic wooden homes with straw roofs. The population exposed to this type of risk is estimated, for the whole of Central America, at approximately 8.4 million people (26 percent of the region's total population ).5 Panama is the country least vulnerable to hurricanes, because of its geography.
It should also be noted that there is a soil-preparation practice widespread throughout the region, according to which stubble and bush fires are set in planting areas, causing uncontrollable, violent forest fires in all countries of the region. This cultural practice, coupled with the gradual expansion of farming land by formerly landless rural workers, is destroying the forest at the rate of about 388 000 hectares per year.6
2. Basic macroeconomic data
a. Trends in Gross Domestic Product
The Central American countries affected by the hurricane show declining trends in the overall structure of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP), due to the impact of Hurricane Mitch on primary activity. Within that overall structure, the biggest impact has been seen in the agriculture and fishing sectors, and their opportunities for productive exploitation in seas, rivers and in aquaculture.
While this was occurring in the Central American region, the GDP of Latin America was growing at a rate of 0.3 percent.7 This growth was especially marked in countries close to Central America, such as Mexico, Panama, Colombia and the Dominican Republic, where 1999 GDP growth was 3.4 percent, 2.8 percent, -5.5 percent and 7.0 percent respectively. The growth registered in the Dominican Republic is significant, because in September 1998 it was rocked by Hurricane George, which reached category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, and was regarded as the second most-destructive hurricane of the season. In Costa Rica, a country with considerable economic influence in the region, and which sustained a low level of damage from Hurricane Mitch, GDP grew 7.5 percent.8
All countries in the region, without exception, show falls in primary activity, with the global average for the region before hurricane Mitch being 21.2 percent. At the end of 2000 the average of this activity decreased to 17.8 percent, i.e 3.4% less than the year prior to the hurricane (see Table 2). The country showing the biggest drop was Honduras, with a 11.5 percent fall between 1997 and 2000, followed by Guatemala and Belize, with a drop of one percentage point over the same period. El Salvador and Nicaragua show the increasing importance of the primary GDP during the last year. As a result of reconstruction activity in the region, secondary and tertiary activities showed slight growth, rising 1.9 percent and 1.5 percent respectively. Only Nicaragua recorded a decline in tertiary activity over the same period.
Primary activity accounts for approximately 20 percent of GDP. El Salvador, Honduras and Belize are the countries least dependent on this activity, with GDP percentages in the year 2000 for primary activity of 10.1 percent, 13.5 percent and 19.3 percent respectively. In the remaining countries affected, the primary sector accounts for more than 23 percentage points. The percentage GDP weighting is highest in Nicaragua, at 29.5 percent over the last three years, and Guatemala's at 29.5 percent, and Guatemala's at 23.4 percent (see also Annex 3).
It should be noted that tertiary activity, which includes the trade and services sectors, accounts for very close to 60 percent of GDP in the economies of the nations affected. Secondary activity, which comprises factory industries, construction and mining, makes up more than 20 percent. It is in El Salvador that the tertiary sector accounts for the highest percentage GDP weighting, with an average of 72.8 percent over the last three years. Over the last year (2000), that percentage decreased to 61.7 percent, which enabled an increase of 28.2 and 10.1 percent, respectively.
Footnotes:
1 National Hurricane Centre, US NOAA, 1998. (See classification of tropical cyclones, provided as Annex.)
2 Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.
3 World Food Programme damage estimates, March 2001.
4 Analysis of Risks and Vulnerability in Central America and Mexico, OXFAM, July 1999.
5 Analysis of Risks and Vulnerability in Central America and Mexico, OXFAM, July 1999.
6 Strategic Plan for the Development and Social Integration of Central America to the year 2020 and Strategies and Lines of Action to 2010, SICA, September 2000.
7 Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) estimates, January 2000.
8 GDP forecasts for the countries of Latin America, ECLAC, January 2000.
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