Each morning, regular as clockwork, a stiff hot wind sweeps dust down from the mountains across the port of General Santos on the bottom of Mindanao Island in the southern Philippines. By the afternoon, an equally warm ocean breeze sweeps it all back under an unblinking sun.
El Nino has made the wind far stronger, hotter and dryer than usual. It dries throats and saps the last of the energy of the hungry farmers as it scorches the trees and the crops and cracks the ground.
Livestock are dying en masse under its weight. Drive a few kilometres out of this recently thriving agriculture and fishing hub and you see goats so hungry they try to climb small trees to get to the leaves - the only greenery for kilometres. Cattle with their ribs poking through hanging skin crouch on their front legs in blackened fields, waiting to die.
Fears are now building in the city that tens of thousands of peasants will be next unless some way can be found to stop a widespread famine taking hold.
Already about 36 people have been confirmed dead from poisonous yams unusually left untouched. The figure is expected to spiral as Red Cross workers reach the more isolated tribal communities on barren mountain ridges, where life - at the best of times - is a constant struggle.
This year there has been no rain since Christmas Eve and, under normal conditions, none is expected until late June at the earliest.
