Heifer International to support 16,000 farming families in the Americas to minimize impact of El Niño on food systems

Nonprofit pledges to help strengthen resilience among smallholders farmers, who produce staple foods and commodities including coffee, cacao and spices.

LITTLE ROCK, AR, UNITED STATES, October 20, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Heifer International will work with at least 16,000 farming families across the Americas to help them contend with the strongest El Niño on record to protect rural livelihoods and global supply chains.

The nonprofit will support smallholder farmers in Ecuador, Guatemala, and Honduras to take pre-emptive action ahead of expected climate extremes, including severe droughts and flooding. This will include resilience-building measures such as protecting water supplies, adjusting planting and harvesting, improving drainage and storage, securing alternative transport, and protecting livestock.

Agriculture provides livelihoods for a significant share of the population in all three countries, which are major producers of globally traded commodities including coffee, cacao and cardamom.

The countries are also among the most vulnerable to climate extremes, including this year’s El Niño, which has already brought drought to coffee-producing regions of Honduras and Guatemala, and flood risk to Ecuador. Reports suggest this year’s coffee production is likely to fall by seven percent in Honduras and 10 percent in Guatemala.

Heifer reiterated its commitment to farmers in the region as policymakers, business leaders, farmers and experts gathered in Des Moines, US, and Quebec City, Canada, for two of the most significant conferences on agriculture and food security in the Americas. Both the World Food Prize Foundation’s Borlaug Dialogue and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture’s Americas Agriculture Forum heard from farmers about the impact of El Niño on food production.

“El Niño’s impacts reach far beyond the farm. Drought and flooding can disrupt harvests, damage roads and storage, reduce farmers’ incomes, and make nutritious food more expensive and harder to access,” said Oscar Castañeda Samayoa, Senior Vice President for Food Systems at Heifer International.

“Turning early warnings into early action is essential to protect the communities and markets that depend on smallholder farmers. The way forward must be to build regenerative food systems hand in hand with smallholder farmers—restoring soil health, protecting water, diversifying production, and strengthening local markets.

“Farmers’ knowledge and leadership must shape that transition, backed by finance, infrastructure, and technical support. Together, we can help farming families prepare for the next shock while building healthier landscapes and more secure livelihoods for the next generation."

In the coming months, Heifer will work with producer organizations to anticipate the most significant weather risks, take practical preventative measures before crises occur, and gather evidence on the most effective measures.

The aim is to minimize impact and avoid losses comparable to previous El Niño events, such as in 1997-1998, when extreme conditions caused losses exceeding US$7.5 billion in the Andean region with significant impacts on agriculture, livestock, and fisheries in Central America.

During the 2023 El Niño, Guatemala reported crop losses of up to 75 percent in some affected areas while Honduras saw coffee production decline about nine percent, bananas 13 percent, and palm oil eight percent.

Heifer is already working with authorities in Ecuador as part of its Alístate project to build climate resilience among producer organizations. The project involves around 3,700 families across eight provinces, and recently launched in Galápagos.

Josselyn Vega, president of the Association of Agroecological Producers of Cotopaxi in Ecuador, who addressed the Borlaug Dialogue on its opening day, said: “In Ecuador, climate change has profoundly transformed the lives of rural communities: it generates economic losses, raises production costs, reduces water flow, degrades the soil, and causes the loss of ancestral knowledge due to disruptions in the agricultural cycle.

“Meanwhile, the threat of an upcoming, intense El Niño event could further disrupt agricultural cycles and accelerate soil degradation and livestock losses.

“There is evidence that indigenous knowledge and agroecology contribute to building sustainable food systems, yet they are still not sufficiently valued or recognized. Faced with this reality, our challenge lies in defending our way of life and production—agroecology—which constitutes a response to climate change. To do so, we need to guarantee our rights and ensure their fulfillment.”

Donna Bowater
Marchmont Communications
donna@marchmontcomms.com