Data or statistical facts on the situation and perspectives of agri-food systems and the impact of policies
El Salvador recorded four meteorological drought periods between June and September 2026. The first lasted 20 days, the second reached up to 22 consecutive dry days and severe drought conditions, the third extended for 28 days and also reached severe conditions, while the fourth reached moderate drought conditions.
Primera-season maize in Honduras and Nicaragua was rated 'Poor' (yields 5-25% below the 5-year average) due to prolonged dry spells and high temperatures. Guatemala and El Salvador are also showing concern over the same climate driver.
Between April 1 and August 20, 2026, the Pacific coastal areas of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua received only 30-60% of their average seasonal rainfall, ranking among the driest such periods since the CHIRPS record began in 1981.
10.5 million people live in the Central American Dry Corridor and depend mainly on subsistence maize and bean farming, which is highly vulnerable to El Niño.
4 weeks without rainfall were enough to destroy staple crop plantings in agricultural communities in Guatemala and El Salvador, worsening food insecurity risks.
4 Central American countries, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, contain extensive areas of the Dry Corridor exposed to prolonged droughts and extreme rainfall associated with El Niño.
Formal workers earned 4.4, 2.5 and 2.4 times more than informal workers in El Salvador, Honduras and Peru (OECD, 2024).
23% of the world’s forests and 60% of global biodiversity are located in Latin America and the Caribbean, highlighting the region’s strategic importance for ecosystem and biodiversity conservation. This significant share also reflects the critical role of LAC in providing essential ecosystem services and in supporting global efforts to address environmental degradation and climate change (Worl...
7% of forest cover was lost between 1990 and 2020 in Latin America and the Caribbean, equivalent to 138 million hectares, highlighting the scale of landscape degradation in the region and the urgency of advancing large-scale restoration and conservation efforts (World Resources Institute, 2024).
58% of greenhouse gas emissions in Latin America and the Caribbean originate from land use, land-use change, and the forestry sector, highlighting the significant weight of these activities in the region’s climate dynamics and the urgent need to strengthen mitigation efforts (World Resources Institute, 2024).
