Only a few trees remain on the once fertile landscape in southern Madagascar.

They stopped the wind, now red sand blows everywhere: on fields, villages, roads and even in the eyes of children waiting for food aid packages.

The worst drought the Beanantara area has ever experienced has lasted for four years.

In addition, deforestation to make charcoal or clear land for agriculture has turned the area into a dust bowl.

“There is nothing to harvest.

So we have nothing to eat and are starving,” says Tarira, a mother of seven, at a remote World Food Program (WFP) post near Anjeky Beanatara, where children are screened for signs of malnutrition and given food.

More than a million people in southern Madagascar are currently in need of food grants from the WFP, a United Nations agency.

The food crisis in the south of the country has developed over years and has various causes such as drought, deforestation, environmental damage, poverty, COVID-19 and population growth, according to local authorities and aid organizations.

"We used to call Madagascar the green island, but unfortunately it's more of a red island now," says Soja Lahimaro Tsimandilatse, governor of southern Androy region.

With a population of 30 million, Madagascar has always struggled with extreme weather events, but scientists say these are likely to become more frequent and severe as human-caused climate change drives up temperatures.

The United Nations IPCC climate panel notes increasing drought conditions in Madagascar and forecasts that droughts will continue to increase.

At the height of the food crisis in the South, the World Food Program (WFP) warned that the island is at risk of experiencing "the world's first famine from climate change".

Theodore Mbainaissem, who is leading WFP's response to the hardest-hit areas of southern Madagascar, says what were once regular weather patterns have changed beyond recognition in recent years, leaving village elders at a loss as to when is the best time to plant or when harvest be.

Mbainaissem says the worst of the food crisis is over after months of intervention by WFP, other aid organizations and local authorities.

He says the rate of severe child malnutrition has fallen from about 30 percent a few months ago to about 5 percent now.

Clubs and aid organizations are trying to concentrate on forward-looking projects, such as the large planting project in the coastal town of Faux Cap, which is intended to stabilize the sand dunes.

But in rural areas, where people live in great poverty, some of the trends that contributed to the crisis are still present.

For newlywed Felix Fitiavantsoa, ​​20, who burned down a patch of forest to cultivate it, the long-term consequences of deforestation were of secondary importance.

He desperately needed to grow food to support his wife and his biggest concern was when it would rain for him to start.

"If it doesn't rain, I don't know what we're going to do.

We're going to pray to God," he said.