Drought has devastated corn crops in Oaxaca and Guerrero, according to farmers in the two southern states.

Two associations of women farmers — one in Oaxaca and one in Guerrero — released a joint statement last week in which they reported the loss of up to 100% of agricultural production.

They said that drought is not only taking a toll on their crops but also on their economic well-being.

The National Water Commission’s most recent “drought monitor” report shows that large parts of Oaxaca and Guerrero are “abnormally dry” or experiencing “moderate drought.”

However, the women farmers’ associations — Red de Mujeres, Ejidatarias y Comuneras del Estado de Oaxaca and the Red Estatal de Mujeres Agraristas de Guerrero (REMA) — described the drought conditions as “severe.”

“The severe drought afflicting our states is on the scale of a catastrophe, similar to the damage caused by hurricanes, only without the wind and without [the public, media and political] spotlight,” they said.

“A hurricane destroys what is visible in a matter of hours; drought destroys our future and what sustains us over the course of months: the cornfields, water, seeds and our livelihoods,” they said.

The farmers’ associations said that communities in Oaxaca and Guerrero, in both coastal and inland regions of the two states, are “losing the capacity” to produce their own food.

Drought conditions “represent a direct threat to the food sovereignty of farming families,” they said.

The two farming associations called on state and federal authorities to declare a climate emergency in drought-affected areas of Oaxaca and Guerrero and establish programs aimed at guaranteeing food sovereignty and supporting female farmers, many of whom primarily grow corn to feed themselves and their families, but sell any surplus they have. They also asked for authorities to provide direct monetary resources to female farmers.

Women farmers in the two states are “in despair,” said Nancy Solano, a farmer and spokesperson for her fellow campesinas in Oaxaca.

She told the news outlet La Silla Rota that prices for corn and tortillas — a staple in Mexico — will go up due to drought-related maize shortages.

Adriana Paz, president of REMA, told La Silla Rota that the association she leads has requested a meeting with federal Agricultural Minister Columba López Gutiérrez to propose a comprehensive drought relief program that takes gender into account. 

“A lot of the government’s public policies don’t have a gender perspective and exclude women,” she said.

“… Without women there is no corn and without corn there is no country,” Paz said.

With reports from El Universal and La Silla Rota