Over 2.6 Million Haitians Face Food Insecurity

A recent United Nations (UN) study warned that over 2.6 million Haitians in rural areas are facing food insecurity. This figure doubled between 2018 and 2019.

The present situation is not encouraging, and some experts expect it to worsen in coming months, as a response to population growth, climate change, and unsatisfactory government policies, among other causes, that have a huge impact on agricultural output.

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Peasant and former Deputy Paul Andre Garçonnet told Prensa Latina that all studies they have done since 1986 to date proved that Haiti is able to produce rice, be self-sufficient and export it in large quantities.

'We currently have a starving peasantry that does not have the capacity to boost its own lives and the lives of organizations, but it is part of the Government's strategies,' he said.

Garconnet, who runs an agroecological plot in the vicinity of the Artibonite Valley, one of Haiti´s most important rice-producing areas, said that a bunch of the Haitian peasantry produce in The Dominican Republic the same foods that could be harvested in Haiti.

The UN research also warned that some two million people are facing up a 'crisis phase' and 571,000 an 'emergency phase'; meanwhile agricultural production drops due to the rainfall slackening and poor economic situation.