As world leaders discuss the global climate crisis at Glasgow's COP26, people in the small African island nation of Madagascar are facing a food shortage at an unprecedented level.
Due to Madagascar's location, as a small island vulnerable to erratic weather changes, it has a long history of natural disasters, experiencing 63 major ones between 1981 and 2014, according to climate experts.
Cyclones, floods, severe droughts, earthquakes and epidemics, including a "locust plague of biblical proportions", are common in the region.
On 21 October 2021, the United Nations attributed climate change as the reason for erratic seasonal changes and a disruption to crop cycles.
Typically, the country experiences a dry season from May to October and a rainy season from November to April. Unfortunately, just half of the usual rainfall occurred in October 2020, with the situation continuing up until now.
Currently, Madagascar is said to be facing its worst drought in 40 years.
The World Food Programme's Communication Officer, Alice Rahmoun, spoke to UN News last month on the impact this was having on food production.
"There is, of course, less rain, so when there is the first rain, they can maybe have hope and sow some seeds. But one little rain is not a proper rainy season.
"So, what we can say is that the impacts of climate change are really stronger and stronger… so harvests fail constantly, so people don't have anything to harvest and anything to renew their food stocks."
Rahmoun reports people surviving on only locusts, fruits and cactus leaves in some areas of Madagascar.
She goes on to speak about how even these food sources are under threat, saying, "even the cactus are dying from the drought, from the lack of rain and the lack of water, so it's really, really worrying."
Some families have even resorted to eating mud to survive.
The UN defines the levels of food insecurity in Madagascar as "catastrophic".
Madagascar produces just 0.01% of the world's annual carbon emissions yet continues to bear the brunt of climate change.