Update: 38% of Guatemala's Drought Food Fund to Go to Transport and Storage as Deliveries Near

GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala —

Of the 500 million quetzales Guatemala's disaster agency gave the World Food Programme to feed farm families hit by drought, 190 million, or 38%, will pay for transport, storage, loading and unloading, risk insurance and other services, Prensa Libre reported Nov. 5. The other 310 million quetzales will buy the food itself.

The national disaster agency, Conred, laid out the figures for congressman Jairo Flores on Nov. 4. Each ration costs 745 quetzales and holds 100 pounds of corn, 30 pounds of beans and 10 pounds of rice, sized for a family of five. Families are to receive one ration every six months, and the 500 million quetzales covers only the first round, so more money must still be found.

The ceiling is 689,822 farm families in all 22 of Guatemala's departments, drawn from the Agriculture Ministry's record of crop damage since July 1. Deliveries are scheduled to start Nov. 11, after municipal, departmental and national emergency committees validate the lists.

Flores questioned those lists, saying Guatemala has no official count of farmers and that choosing beneficiaries is left to Agriculture Ministry extension workers, which he said opens the door to patronage. “This product can end up in warehouses to be looted for (political) campaigns,” he said, according to Prensa Libre. He called the situation proof that the programs “are not reaching the farmer.”

Eduardo Aguilar of Conred said validation is done as a whole and not by the mayor alone, with the ministry's extension worker and every committee member signing. Asked whether Conred can guarantee the food reaches those in need, he said no, and said he could not assure that the lists leave out people who are not farmers or did not lose crops. Files with inconsistencies can be rejected, he said.

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Local leaders say some needy families are missing. Villa Canales in Guatemala department and Guanagazapa in Escuintla have turned in lists of farmers who lost crops but are not in the registry. In Camotán, Chiquimula, the national statistics institute counts 12,829 farm families, while the town's emergency committee asked for 16,326 rations.

What we don't know yet: How many families will actually receive rations on Nov. 11, and where Guatemala will find the money for the second round. Watchman News reported Nov. 2 on earlier complaints that the aid's limits miss hungry families.