GUATEMALA CITY, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Guatemala aims to truck food aid to more than 400,000 families in the coming months as a severe drought threatens food shortages, President Alvaro Colom said on Wednesday. Colom declared a state of "calamity" over food supply in Guatemala, where a prolonged dry spell has reduced the harvest of staples like maize and beans by up to 50 percent. He told journalists the measure would enable Guatemala to request help from other countries and assist delivery of food aid to the worst-hit area, east of Guatemala City. Many people in Guatemala suffer from malnutrition, but a sharp drop in remittances sent home by relatives working in the United States has made it even harder for poor families with scant access to food, aid workers say. "This year the situation is more critical and we are seeing more children with malnutrition ... with weight loss and listlessness," Rubelci Alvarado, director of Save the Children's programs in Guatemala told Reuters. The most recent data, going back to 2002, estimates that 49 percent of children under 5 years old suffer from chronic malnutrition, one of the worst levels in Latin America. Last year the government delivered food packages to around 70,000 families in October. This year, the drought has prompted it to bring forward the delivery by several weeks and to target six times as many families. Much of Guatemala's prime agricultural land is given over to large coffee, sugar and African palm plantations. (Reporting by Sarah Grainger)
Farmers carry buckets to collect water on the outskirts of Loudi, Hunan province September 8, 2009. Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu urged more efforts to fight drought in parts of China ...
