Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 31st May. According to a new FAO report relaseed on Tuesday warned that a total of 4.9 million people in Haiti half of the country’s population are experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity.
The latest integrated food security phase classification analysis, reported on Sunday that of the total number of affected people, 1.8 million are in an emergency-level phase of need.
Aaccording to the Food and Agriculture Organization this means that households face large food consumption gaps resulting in high acute malnutrition and excess mortality, or are forced to adopt negative coping mechanisms to cover food needs, such as selling off assets or eating seeds instead of planting them, increasing their vulnerability.
FAO warned with 75 per cent of Haiti’s population living in rural areas, urgent measures are needed to save lives and quickly restore the agricultural livelihoods of vulnerable farmers.
The agency said investing $125 in a market-gardening seed package can generate 20 times its value in the production of vegetables, enabling families to have access to food and generate income through the sale of part of the product obtained.
FAO is appealing for $61.7 million to assist 700,000 people to improve their access to food under the 2023 Humanitarian Response Plan.
Activities will focus on the provision of such agricultural inputs as seeds and fertilizer to increase staple food and vegetable production during the 2023 spring and winter seasons as well as to protect livestock assets, through the provision of poultry and goats alongside vaccines and veterinary treatment, FAO stated
According to a new FAO and WFP report published on Monday warned that acute food insecurity is set to increase in magnitude and severity in 18 hunger “hotspots” around the world.
The report found that many hotspots are facing growing hunger and highlights the worrying multiplier effect that simultaneous and overlapping shocks are having on acute food insecurity.
Conflict, climate extremes, and economic shocks continue to drive more and more communities into crisis, it added.
The report warned that Burkina Faso and Mali, Sudan, and Haiti have been elevated to the highest concern levels.
WFP said “All hotspots at the highest level have communities facing or projected to face starvation, or are at risk of sliding towards catastrophic conditions, given they have already emergency levels of food insecurity and are facing severe aggravating factors.”
“These hotspots require the most urgent attention,” it warned.
