By: Inga Vesper
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Together with the UN, the ministers aim to introduce farmers to innovative water conservation methods, more suitable crops and better weather monitoring technologies — to be deployed during an El Niño phase.
“We need to change the traditional response strategy and not settle for simply mounting a humanitarian response every time an emergency situation occurs.”
José Graziano da Silva, UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization
According to the UN, 44 municipalities in Honduras had to receive emergency food supplies, while smallholder farmers in Guatemala lost between 50 and 75 per cent of their staple grains.
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a Rome-based UN funding organisation, said it would support the governments of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras with money for better weather monitoring. At the meeting, IFAD representatives urged governments to set up data centres and increase research on more-accurate forecasting techniques.