About 980,000 people living in the four departments most affected by the August 14 earthquake in Haiti are at risk of going hungry this winter, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) said Thursday on its official site.
In a first post-quake assessment in Haiti, the FAO’s Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis found that hunger spiked in affected areas that bore the brunt of the 7.2 magnitude quake. People in Grand’Anse, Nippes, South and Southeast areas are now living with acute food insecurity.
FAO urgently called for more investments to help rural Haitians resume critical backyard gardening and small-scale farming and avoid a worsening of the food crisis.
“On top of a succession of disasters and crises, this latest double whammy has left people’s ability to produce and to access food for their families and communities in tatters ,” said Representative in Haiti, Jose Luis Fernandez.
“With the October winter planting season just around the corner, we can’t wait to invest in rebooting agricultural production. That must happen immediately, but we are hampered by low levels of funding for this critical work,” he added.