Vanuatu is in the midst of a nation-wide drought that is affecting the environment and people’s lifestyle.
The El Nino drought has become a regional challenge with negative effects on subsistence livelihood, says Antoine Ravo, a senior agriculture officer with the Vanuatu Department of Agriculture.
Ravo said agricultural food production has declined in villages as people cannot tend to their gardens due to lack of rainfall in the last several months.
The Siviri and Malafau communities in North Efate indicated that crops are not performing due to the absence of soil moisture and the warm daily weather since the middle of the year.
Siviri farmer Sam Loh said he is purchasing processed foods in Port Vila to feed his village chicken as there are no feeds for the animals.
“Feed for chicken is becoming expensive because we cannot get anything from gardens to process as livestock feeds,” Loh said.
Ravo said the island nation was double-troubled this year – first by Cyclone Pam which destroyed the country in March and later El Nino, which has prolonged.
“The cyclone destroyed not just food gardens but infrastructure and villages,” Ravo said, adding that when the people started to recover from the devastation, the drought has hindered any progress.
“We tried our best to revive some agriculture projects,” he said.
He added that a regional project with PNG’s NARI has assisted some communities in regenerating stocks of animal breeds and planting materials.