Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Haiti farmers spared hunger by timely aid

Terra Daily via UPI: Farmers in Haiti, the poorest nation in the Americas and one of the most destitute on Earth, have been spared hunger and starvation because of an innovative seed replacement program financed by international funders. Haitians are already on alert against an impending onslaught of seasonal hurricanes, for which they have received emergency aid to last a few weeks after the storms hit the Caribbean state, as they most certainly will between now and September, U.N. sources said.

Sylvie Wabbes, a senior emergency operations officer with the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization, told United Press International the program was the first major U.N. effort to forestall hunger in the Haitian farmer communities and had already recorded success.

"This joint Ministry of Agriculture and IFAD and FAO program is the first one with this tripartite arrangements and of such large scale," Wabbes, agronomist, operations officer and budget holder for the FAO emergency operations and rehabilitation division, said in an interview. She said agencies had earlier run smaller programs to supply farmers with good-quality seeds but the new effort owed much to "the knowledge and capacity of a strong national FAO emergency team."…

NASA shot of deforestation in Haiti

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