Farmers in the El Trifinio region of Central America are diversifying into agroforestry to increase their resilience to drought.

An article on the website of Deutsche Welle explains how these farmers have been battling drought for years. As the climate changes, they are increasingly losing their crops and their food security is becoming threatened.

The El Trifinio region is the border area shared by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Larges areas of land in surrounding areas have been given over to monocultures of maize and beans, but now there is a push to diversify and engage in agroforestry to improve food security.

The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) has been working in El Trifinio together with NGOs and development organizations to help farmers test more resistant varieties of beans and introduce agroforestry practices. Farmers are now growing trees such as peach and avocado to supplement more traditional subsistence crops.

"Those who shifted to agroforestry systems experienced less severe problems with drought than those who only have bare fields with maize and beans," says Adriaan Vogel who runs a forestry and water project in the Trifinio region.

Read the full story: Central America’s food security threatened by drought

Find out more about CCAFS work in Trifinio: Intelligent ideas: scenarios to manage water as climate changes in Guatemala