In her wooden hut in Vohitsova, Soalignee, 24, nurses her two-month-old son, Manampiaro, the village’s youngest resident. Vohitsova, in Androy region, is a bumpy, four-hour drive inland from Madagascar’s southern coast. Soalignee, who like many people in the region goes by one name, does not want Manampiaro – which means ‘protection’ in Malagasy – to work the land as she, her parents and grandparents did. ‘I want him to be a soldier,’ she says. ‘Being a farmer here depends on the rain. Now the weather has changed, when he is older there will be no rain. It’s not good to be a farmer’

More than 1.6. million people in Madagascar rely on food aid and half of children under five are chronically malnourished, the result of severe drought since 2019. The climate crisis has made the timing of the rainy season unpredictable. When the rains do arrive, they can be accompanied by strong winds and cyclones, which have wiped out harvests. Sotea, 84, remembers better times. ‘We grew cassava, maize, sweet potato and greens,’ he says. ‘We’d have two, three years that were good, then a bad one. We could get ready… now we don’t know,’ he says

The UN World Food Programme is installing solar panels in Vohitsova that can power water pumps to help mitigate some of the impact of global heating. The WFP is supporting grassroots groups and communities across Androy and neighbouring Anosy region who are working to increase production and cope with the climate changes that have afflicted their farming

Dimache, 32, assistant to the head of the village, in his home with his wife Kazy, 27, and children Safidy, five, Dinah, two, and baby Azizo. Dimache welcomes the help, but expects life to become more precarious. ‘There used to be a forest here,’ he says of the area outside his home. ‘The trees help hold the water when the rain does come.’ In 2021, severe drought left more than 1 million people in southern Madagascar facing acute hunger. Many people left Vohitsova and headed north looking for food and work. ‘I think more people will leave,’ he says

Crossing the Mandrare river. During the rainy season, which usually starts in October/November, the river, a few hours’ drive south of Vohitsova, should be full as water flows towards the Indian Ocean

At some points, farmers are able to dig water holes in the dried riverbed

Avimaro Mikendremana, who works for the WFP, looks at an enormous concrete water trap built decades ago by the government in Ankako village, which is close to the river. The tank was built to funnel rainwater into underground tanks but today the tanks are bone dry

Lorries deliver food aid from the port of Taolagnaro to huge UN food agency warehouses outside Amboasary Sud, in Anosy, a nine-hour drive south of Vohitsova. Last year, the agency distributed an average of 1,500 metric tonnes of food a month to communities. The unpredictability of the seasons is making it hard for the agency to plan how much aid will be needed in the next year, says Thacienne Mushimiyimana, head of WFP in Amboasary Sud

Bruno Rakotoson, who is the supervisor of the warehouses, is from southern Madagascar and understands the farmers’ difficulties. ‘You can no longer predict and therefore can’t plan,’ he says. ‘When the rain does come, it wipes out a field. It also makes it hard to distribute food to where it’s needed’

The few roads that exist in this region are poorly maintained so heavy rains and cyclones make it difficult to distribute aid. In 2022, Madagascar was hit by two cyclones within two weeks, killing almost 150 people and destroying crops, just weeks before the harvest. ‘We need to plant trees and the world needs to reduce air pollution,’ says warehouse supervisor Bruno Rakotoson

Fenoaivo, a village of 300 households in Anosy, about six hours from Amboasary Sud, has received a borehole, water tower and solar panels from the UN food agency WFP. The panels power a barber shop, welding machine and a mill that grinds flour

Mikendremana checks progress on the crops being grown in Fenoaivo using the hydroponic technique. These crops are grown in nutrient-infused water, rather than soil, and the water, fed through drip irrigation, is collected and reused

Sambo, 70, collects water from a well in Fenoaivo. Each year he has to dig deeper to find water. ‘When I was young, it was a good harvest. Now there is less rain. The mangoes which should be ripe in the middle of October are now ripe in the middle of December and then they’re not juicy, not sweet,’ he says. While droughts were common when he was young, now they occur ‘all the time’

Sambo waters his fields of cassava. While the tubers provide little nourishment, they are filling and can be dried and stored for long periods

Monjabertin, 40, his wife, Sambetegnae, 40, and daughter, Julienne, five, in their home in Fenoaivo. Monjabertin is president of an organisation called Tsarajoro, which means ‘well standing’, which works with the WFP in Anosy. He says; ‘Every year is a problem, every year drought’

Monjabertin says the borehole and solar panels have made a big difference. It’s easier to get clean water for drinking, washing and cooking, and for the hydroponic garden. But he would like another, deeper borehole dug and another water tower to provide more water for farming

Mahatombo, 85, is the oldest person in the village. ‘When I was young, it was a small village. Now it grows,’ he says. ‘I grew cassava, sweet potatoes, greens. I had Zebu [cattle], goats and sheep, poultry – turkeys and ducks.’ In the past, the harvest was big enough to sustain the community. ‘There was drought for two months every two or three years. But now there is drought every year – and that is impossible to prepare for.’ It’s too hot to grow greens, he adds, and cloth canopies to protect crops from the sun cost money villagers don’t have. ‘Electricity helps but we need water,’ he says

Cattle being led to the depleted Mandrare river

Villagers are starting to plant more indigenous fantiolotse trees, the wood of which are used in house-building, and the drought-resistant morenga trees, which help stave off soil erosion and have leaves that are rich in vitamins

At Beabo school in Ambovombe, east of Ambosasary, head chef Sylviane mixes morenga leaves with rice to make lunch for 700 pupils. Giving the children lunch helps encourage them to stay in school as well as giving them the fuel to concentrate on their learning

Without free lunches, many pupils would drop out of school to help their families earn money, says headteacher Emma Razanaparany. ‘When I was young it was better. We knew the seasons well. Now you don’t know when the seasons will be’

Searching for water in Mandrare river. Marc Regnault de la Mothe, deputy country director for WFP in Madagascar, says governments must ‘step up more strongly’ to support people living with the affects of global heating. ‘Climate change is real and it effects the poorest the most,’ he says