As farmers in PNG recover from a long drought and rush to replant in Vanuatu after twin cyclones last month, a forecast El Niño weather pattern could hamper recovery efforts and threaten food supplies.
"I planted some cassava, banana with sweet potato, small cucumbers … but the cyclone that came spoiled everything," said Ruth Yowko, a farmer from the Teouma Valley in Efate Island Vanuatu.Moses John Amos, director-general of the Ministry of Agriculture Vanuatu, said 80 per cent of the people who lived in local communities relied on root crop agriculture.
"If we have an El Niño, it will negatively impact cultivation of any replanting program that the ministry will be carrying out," Mr Amos said.The need for drought-resilient crops "Global warming will increase the frequency and intensity of El Niño as well as La Nina," Mr Tigona said.
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