Hunger grows again because of the weather

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We have not noticed, but five years ago something unusual happens. And disastrous: the number of people who go hungry in the world, which had been steadily reducing for three decades, has increased again since 2015. Added to more specific problems, such as the terrible locust plague that threatens to generate a food crisis in East Africa, this dramatic change in trend has already triggered alarms, after five years followed by negative data.

The programs to combat malnutrition were giving, although slowly, results . But they have run into a new enemy: the weather. If, as scientists warn, droughts and natural disasters will continue to increase, new strategies against malnutrition will have to be adopted.

The key idea that, given this new scenario, food crisis specialists handle is that of resilience. A need, but also an opportunity. It is urgent to transform the landscape, the economy and the ways of life of the areas most vulnerable to hunger, which in many cases coincide with those most sensitive to climate change, if we want to prevent the increase in malnutrition from becoming the new pernicious - normal.

According to the latest report on The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, jointly prepared by several UN agencies, both the number of undernourished people and their percentage worldwide have increased every year since 2015, to stand at the 2010/11 levels . Since these figures had been going down for decades - since at least 1992 - the change of direction has disturbed the experts.

If we add the predictions about the effects of climate change to the new and worrying trend, we get a devastating result: the data is getting worse and can still sink further. "In a warmer 2ºC world, 189 million people could experience higher levels of vulnerability to food insecurity than at present," says Gernot Laganda, head of disaster risk reduction projects at the World Food Program (WFP , for its acronym in English), the largest humanitarian organization of the UN.

The relationship between climate and hunger is, Laganda warns, unavoidable: even in the best scenario that UN climate experts contemplate for the present century, which would be an average temperature increase of 1.5ºC compared to the pre-industrial level , food security would already be threatened, with a 10% decline in corn crops worldwide.

As greater warming is contemplated, the consequences are increasingly catastrophic. With an increase of 3ºC, the forecast is that 20% of the world's crops will be lost .

"All countries are exposed to climate risk," Laganda warns, "but some regions of the world are especially vulnerable." The so-called Horn of Africa, the eastern part of the continent where hunger is a constant threat, and that these days suffers an uncontrollable locust plague , is among the most threatened areas. As well as the Sahel desert and, across the Atlantic, the corridor of Central America. And, in Asia, the places in the south and southeast where the risk of flooding and storm is greatest. In short, those who have more problems will already be the ones that get worse.

"The greatest threats to food security exist in those parts of the world where climate change is combining - and exacerbating - with other major causes of hunger, such as conflict and economic marginalization," agrees Laganda. Among the countries that are suffering major shocks of this type are Afghanistan, Chad, Congo, South Sudan and Yemen , explains this expert.

The paradox is that, as Carlo Scaramella, director of the WFP in Colombia indicates, those who have least contributed to air pollution are the most vulnerable to the effects of warming. «The greatest impact of climate change is foreseen in the areas that are already the most disadvantaged. They are the ones that have less responsibility and those that are more exposed. They have less anticipation, early warning and protection systems, ”explains Scaramella. "In sub-Saharan Africa we are already seeing it," he continues. "Climate change is happening, it is not theoretical."

Laura Melo, director of the WFP in a country, Guatemala, which has been suffering droughts for five years, details the vicious circle to which families dependent on small crops are condemned: «A drought is coming one year; It's complicated, but they sell something, they eat less ... The next year, another drought comes and the situation is getting worse. The ways to deal with the problem are increasingly extreme : they have to sell more things and men emigrate.

The accumulation of droughts or meteorological disasters causes a shortage of nutrients that the affected children will carry during all their lives: «The food, which in itself is not very varied, becomes very precarious. There are increasing cases of acute malnutrition in children and families have fewer resources for health, education ... these successive blows have a great impact on basic needs, ”adds Melo.

"Almost half of the children in Guatemala suffer from chronic malnutrition, which affects development, both growth and neurons," he says. «To combat it, the so-called 1,000-day window is important, from conception to two years. You have to start with the pregnant mother; when there is a situation of poverty, there is no access to that diet and the situation is perpetuated.

But problem is not confined to areas of the planet where the effects of warming are expected to be most devastating. In the world there are 550 million families working in family farming , that is, small crops, very exposed to weather and climate changes. Which feed, in turn, billions of people across the globe.

It is estimated, in fact, that 80% of the food consumed in developing countries comes from this kind of crops. Therefore, investing in improving and diversifying them will be a key issue to prevent the effects of climate change. They are the most vulnerable crops to the fluctuations of the weather, but also essential to try to stop hunger.

It takes many 'quinoas'

An example of success is provided by Scaramella: "Quinoa is a product that has been rescued for a few years and has now been imposed on markets around the world as a healthy product."

The cultivation of this seed, maintained throughout history by ancestral cultures and now expanding in Colombia and other countries, offers a possibility of "raising the standard of living of many communities in very precarious conditions."

Although the essential thing, Scaramella proposes, is that, beyond this specific case, "there are many quinoas." That is, in each area, a local, viable and effective solution must be sought to provide nutrients and diversify the commercial possibilities of families that remain tied to a single crop.

«They have a small area of ​​land and cultivate the basics: beans and corn. We must support them to have other productions, irrigation systems or chickens and chickens, which greatly benefit their diet and provide an animal protein for their children, ”says Melo.

Other examples raised by experts transcend even agriculture, such as the cultivation of tilapia, a fish that does not require large bodies of water and has been successfully introduced in Colombia, or ceramics, which allows a small commercial activity apart from the dreaded droughts. But nothing is easy.

The role of women, fundamental

Both in the diversification of commercial activities and in the care and maintenance of avian mini-farms, women's work is essential. “You give five chicks to a woman and she is increasing her production, ” says Melo, who also highlights the good results of the women's groups that are dedicated to developing and promoting handicrafts.

They produce objects and sell them in small commercial networks, which provides them and their families with an activity outside subsistence farming. It frees them, therefore, from a total dependence on the weather. It also gives them a minimum of family and community power, something that, in many cases, they had never had.

Women, along with children, suffer the most from malnutrition, since they are the ones who take care of the family when the man emigrates, Melo says. They are, therefore, essential to alleviate the problem. A reality that, sometimes, is difficult to see in their communities.

But creating a future more resistant to climate attacks will not be possible without them .

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