According to local inhabitants, garden productivity in the Upper Orinoco region was significantly below normal at the time of the study, a fact that can be attributed to the El Niño weather conditions in 1997–1998. Colleagues in the region conducted several aerial surveys, and provided convincing photographic evidence that many local gardens had been damaged by heavy flooding. During the field season, there were numerous reports of food shortages in the Yanomamö and Ye’kwana communities along the river. Inhabitants of the study site reported that they were no longer suffering shortages, although they had been a few months earlier. During that time, village leaders travelled to local missions.
