It is the crucial day for the children of this village in the south of Madagascar: the effects of the renewed El Niño climate phenomenon are already visible in this region, which has been hit by a severe drought in recent years that led to famine.
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In front of the Manindra community center, under the “Talk Tree” planted in the center of the village, around fifty mothers are waiting to put their children on a scale.
It is at least 35 degrees and the dry wind is stirring up the red earth. According to the United Nations, the lack of rain in this vast area of the Indian Ocean island has been felt since October, resulting in a worst-case scenario for the harvest season starting in May.
“Madagascar is already facing the climate crisis. And with the return of El Niño, the consequences could be dramatic,” warns Reena Ghelani, UN coordinator for the climate crisis and the El Niño phenomenon, who concluded her visit to the country on Friday.
AFP
In recent years, Madagascar has been hit by the worst drought the country has ever experienced in forty years. According to weather forecasts, the island is expected to experience even more severe droughts this year.
At least 1.3 million Malagasy people are already victims of malnutrition in one of the poorest countries in the world, which is also regularly hit by storms and hurricanes.
“The environment in which we live is in great danger. There is too much drought and too much wind. Nothing grows on our land anymore. Everything we plant eventually falls. “We suffer from all of this,” describes Nasolo, mother of ten children, who carries the last one on her chest.
AFP
“The rain doesn’t fall”
Arisoa, 37, had to walk seven kilometers to have her one-year-old son, baptized by Bien-Aimé, weighed: “I come every two weeks to weigh (him) and check his health,” she explains .
She regularly measures her little boy's arm circumference with a bracelet to monitor his muscle mass. Three months ago, Arisoa discovered that her son had reached the stage of acute malnutrition.
“I know I should give him fish, bananas and pineapple. But we don't have the means and we don't have enough food. “The rain isn’t falling,” she whispers.
AFP
According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the global annual average temperature in 2023 was 1.45 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels (1850-1900). And 2024 could surpass last year's heat record due to the effects of warming linked to El Niño, the United Nations warned last month.
According to Ms. Ghelani, early detection of weather risks, which makes it possible to quickly trigger humanitarian assistance through the distribution of seeds, money or food, is a step forward in the fight against climate-related food crises.
Thanks to funding from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), farmers are also trying to weather the challenges of climate change.
AFP
Some use an application developed by the FAO that compiles simplified agrometeorological data: “It helps us better predict rainfall and winds and decide whether to plant or not (…) It has changed our lives,” welcomes Bienvenue Manasoa, who grows corn, sorghum and peanuts.
Others are turning to growing more drought-resistant seeds, like Ialy Tsivonanomby, who became a seed producer for the FAO.
“I chose to grow millet because it is nutritious and, above all, it does not require a lot of water to grow,” he explains. Around the Malagasy farmer stretches a field with long, heavy ears of grain, crossed by kilometers of landscape full of snowshoe cacti.