Worsening drought associated with the El Niño weather phenomenon has severely reduced crop output in several Central American countries this fall for the second year in a row, according to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization Monday.

The consecutive crop losses have had catastrophic effects on small farmers and rural communities in the region, who already struggle to meet their basic needs, while the longer the drought lasts the greater the humanitarian disaster will become, said the FOA.

According to media reports, the extreme weather could drive further migration from the Central American countries, particularly Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, where poverty and lack of opportunity is already widespread.

A state of alert has been declared in the region by the Central American Agricultural Council – which is headed by local ministers – after hundreds of thousands of subsistence farmers have suffered the partial or total loss of their summer crops, the FAO reported. The organization's figures state that maize crops have suffered a loss of 60 percent while bean crops saw a loss of at least 80 percent.

See more at:

Telesur