UN food agency starts emergency seed, tool distribution in Haiti

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has begun emergency distributions of seeds and tools in Haiti to help disaster-affected families produce food and restore livelihoods, the deputy UN spokesman, Farhan Haq. told reporters here Wednesday.

Hurricane Matthew struck during Haiti's second main harvest time, causing losses to agriculture of 580 million U.S. dollars and striking a major blow to the small Caribbean country's food security, Haq said at a daily news briefing here, citing information from the FAO.

"Family farming -- a primary food source for most Haitians -- took an especially heavy blow in the hurricane that wiped out 90 percent of the country's harvest," Haq said.

Some 1.4 million people are in need of food assistance and out of this number, some 600,000 base their livelihood exclusively on agriculture, he noted.

In the heaviest-hit areas, including Grand'Anse, parts of Nippes, and Sud departments, more than 75 percent of the population is struggling with the effects of the hurricane, as livelihoods based on agriculture, livestock and fisheries were almost completely destroyed.

To address both immediate and long-term food needs, FAO is collaborating with the World Food Programme (WFP), which provide food aid to the same families that receive FAO emergency seeds as planting materials. This ensures farming families can use the seeds distributed for growing vegetables to recover their livelihoods and feed their communities in the months to come.

Last week alone, in the presence of Haiti's agriculture minister Pierre Guito Laurore, FAO has begun distributing emergency supplies to some 22 500 people in Marfranc, one of the hardest-hit parts of Grand'Anse department.

These communities received 15 tonnes of seeds that will produce an estimated 75 tonnes of green beans and 90 tonnes of lima beans for hurricane-affected families. These short-cycle crops are ideal in emergencies as they provide food quickly. In an effort to reboot sweet potato production, farming communities will further benefit from the distribution of over 2.2 million sweet potato cuttings for planting in the winter growing season.

In all, FAO emergency intervention for the winter staple crop season and short-cycle horticultural crops will have, by mid-December, reached 25 050 households -- 125, 250 people, in the most affected departments of Haiti, including 5 400 households in Grand'Anse, 15,150 in Sud, 2,000 in Nord-Ouest, 1,500 in the Artibonite, and another 1,000 across Sud-Est and Ouest.

FAO is also providing immediate assistance to 1,500 fisher families and 2,500 herder families.

In October, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that 1.4 million Haitians were in need of humanitarian aid, including cholera vaccines, just a few days after the passage of Hurricane Matthew, which reportedly killed more than 1,000 people in the small island country.

Haiti is particularly vulnerable to natural disasters and has suffered greatly in recent years. It is frequently battered by hurricane, with Hurricane Jeanne killing at least 3,000 people in 2004. Enditem