JIQUILISCO, El Salvador (Reuters) – Encouraged by a good harvest last year, Maria de Jesus Lopez, a modest farmer, decided to boost her production of corn on the land she rents, but an unexpected drought in El Salvador has cost her the whole harvest.
Maria Jesus Lopez cuts corn plants to feed animals in a drought-affected farm near the town of San Marcos Lempa, El Salvador, July 25, 2018.
“We were not expecting this blow,” Lopez, 65, said in a rural area in the town of Jiquilisco, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of capital city San Salvador.
The lack of rain, she said, has cost her about $2,000 dollars.
Lopez is one of more than 77,000 corn farmers severely hurt by a month-long drought that has affected more than half the country and prompted the government to declare a “red alert” to distribute resources to victims.
Maria Jesus Lopez shows a corn ear in a drought-affected farm near the town of San Marcos Lempa, El Salvador, July 25, 2018.
REUTERS/Jose Cabezas “We are not going to harvest anything,” she said.
The drought has triggered the loss of 1.6 million bags of corn, a staple of the Salvadoran diet.
Central American experts predict that in the next three months the region will continue to see low levels of rain, prompting authorities to scramble for solutions.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Cattle has said that producers affected by the drought will receive aid to help them recover their crops, primarily corn.