FAO Appeals for Haitian Aid

ROME - Mar 10/04 - SNS -- The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization is appealing for U.S. $4 million in immediate aid for Haiti for use in restoring agricultural production and improving food security.

The FAO says the current crisis has further degraded an agricultural sector already weakened by years of poverty, FAO said.

The agricultural sector faces: a lack of essential agricultural inputs; a lack of fully functioning agricultural and veterinary services; difficulty in selling harvests and farmed goods due to damaged roads and a precarious security situation; and abandoned agricultural areas where people can no longer farm.

"Together all of these factors have plunged a large number of farming households into serious difficulty," said Anne Bauer, Head of FAO's Emergency Operations and Rehabilitation Division.

Many farmers face the risk of being unable to sell their harvest and therefore to get the resources needed to afford essential foodstuffs such as oils, meat and beans.

Some five million of Haiti's total population of eight million live in rural areas. FAO estimates that three million of these are facing serious difficulties. Before the recent crisis, almost half of the population was food insecure.

FAO's appeal will raise the funds to provide basic agricultural inputs including seeds and tools to 100 000 of the country's most-affected households.

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