Heifer to support 16,000 farming families as El Niño threatens crops in the Americas

Heifer International is moving to help smallholder farmers in Ecuador, Guatemala and Honduras prepare for severe drought and flooding linked to the strongest El Niño on record. The effort is aimed at protecting rural livelihoods, key export crops and food supplies across the region.

Why it matters: - Heifer International’s response targets farming families that produce staple foods and export commodities, so climate shocks can ripple through rural incomes, food prices and global supply chains. - The nonprofit’s plan focuses on preventive action, not disaster response after losses have already mounted. - The countries involved are major producers of coffee, cacao and cardamom, making weather disruptions a regional and international market issue.

What happened: - Heifer International will work with at least 16,000 farming families across the Americas to help them cope with the strongest El Niño on record. - The main focus is Ecuador, Guatemala and Honduras, where smallholder farmers face expected climate extremes including drought and flooding. - Heifer outlined the plan as policymakers, business leaders, farmers and experts met at the World Food Prize Foundation’s Borlaug Dialogue in Des Moines and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture’s Americas Agriculture Forum in Quebec City.

The details: - The support package includes measures to protect water supplies, adjust planting and harvesting, improve drainage and storage, secure alternative transport and protect livestock. - Agriculture supports a significant share of livelihoods in Ecuador, Guatemala and Honduras. - El Niño has already brought drought to coffee-growing regions in Honduras and Guatemala, while Ecuador faces flood risk. - Reports indicate coffee production could fall 7% in Honduras and 10% in Guatemala this year. - Heifer said it will work with producer organizations in the coming months to identify the biggest weather risks, take preventative steps before crises hit and collect evidence on which measures work best. - The nonprofit also wants to avoid losses on the scale of the 1997-1998 El Niño, which caused more than US$7.5 billion in losses in the Andean region and hit agriculture, livestock and fisheries in Central America. - During the 2023 El Niño, Guatemala reported crop losses of up to 75% in some affected areas. - Honduras saw coffee production fall about 9%, bananas 13% and palm oil 8% during that event. - Heifer is already working with authorities in Ecuador through its Alístate project to build climate resilience among producer organizations. - The Alístate project involves around 3,700 families across eight provinces and recently launched in Galápagos.

Between the lines: - Heifer is framing climate resilience as a supply-chain issue as much as a humanitarian one. - The emphasis on early warnings, local markets and farmer-led decisions signals a shift toward adaptation strategies that can be scaled before the next shock. - Oscar Castañeda Samayoa, Heifer International’s senior vice president for food systems, said drought and flooding can damage harvests, roads and storage, reduce incomes and make nutritious food more expensive and harder to access. - Castañeda also said regenerative food systems should be built with smallholder farmers, backed by finance, infrastructure and technical support. - Josselyn Vega, president of the Association of Agroecological Producers of Cotopaxi in Ecuador, said climate change has increased economic losses, production costs, soil degradation and water stress, and she argued that indigenous knowledge and agroecology are still undervalued.

What's next: - Heifer will continue coordinating with producer groups and authorities in the region over the coming months. - The organization will use the effort to test which resilience measures best reduce losses from El Niño-related droughts and floods. - The goal is to strengthen rural livelihoods now and build more secure food systems for the next generation.

The bottom line: - Heifer is betting that early, farmer-led climate preparation can blunt El Niño’s damage before it spreads from fields to food systems.