At a meeting of U.N. agencies in Rome one month after the earthquake, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf warned that Haiti, already facing a major food crisis, lacked badly needed farm resources as the planting season approaches.
“The immediate priority is support for the farm season that begins in March and accounts for more than 60 percent of food production,” he said.
The $23 million required to fund Haiti’s immediate agricultural needs are part of a U.N. “flash” — or emergency — appeal for $575 million to help rebuild the country.
“We are alarmed at the lack of support to the agricultural component of the Flash Appeal,” Diouf said.
FAO has already started to distribute seeds, fertilisers and tools to enable Haitian farmers to plant for the next harvest. Planted now, horticultural produce would be ready in only three months, Diouf said.
Almost 60 percent of Haitians lived in rural areas before the Jan. 12 earthquake struck, killing 212,000 people. Eighty percent of the population survived on less than $2 a day.
