More malnutrition and poverty in El Salvador according to FAO

The food and agriculture organization (FAO) of the United Nations, states that the recent food and financial crisis has severely increased malnutrition and poverty in El Salvador. According to experts from FAO, 18,9% percent of El Salvadoran people faces conditions of chronic malnutrition during childhood. This can in some cases affect normal growth. The FAO representant in El Salvador, Delmy Linares, says that it has to be done a lot on the issue of nutricional food security.

She emphasizes that the problem in El Salvador is not only the decrease in food production, but also lack of food accessibility for the majority of the population. It is misleading when food security is only referred to as a question of lack of production when it is also about whether the people has access to food or not. She uses beans as an example of a product which is not lacking, but has an unaffordable price for many people. There are various products being imported and produced in El Salvador, but people does not always have the money.

Also, the National Association of Rural Producers in El Salvador (AMPRES), states that supply of food does not necessarily mean that there is production of food. The situation is that the majority of the food is imported because local production is not stimulated. El Salvador is facing a situation where they are dependent on 80 % of the rice, 100 % of the yellow maize, and 12% of the white maize they need to feed the people. AMPRES suggests to increase stimulation of national production.

The World Food Program revealed that more than 100000 of the millions of Central American people thrown out in poverty because of rising food prices, are people from El Salvador.

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