Food insecurity affects 4.9 million people in Haiti.
This is according to a report presented Friday (Mar. 17) by the “Comissão Nacional de Segurança Alimentar do Haiti” (CNSA), the National Commission for Food Security.
The figures show that the problem of hunger is again affecting just over 40% of the population of the country neighboring the Dominican Republic, after a slight decrease in recent years.
The government agency’s report cites several factors responsible for the situation.
These include crop failures in recent years due to the climate crisis.
Other reasons contributing to the rise in food insecurity in Haiti, it said, include increasing social vulnerability, currency devaluation, and the spread of violence by armed gangs that have hampered economic activity in much of the Caribbean nation.
Outlying districts of the capital, Port-au-Prince, are among the regions most affected by food insecurity.
The report also shows that regions in southern Haiti affected by the [magnitude 7.2] earthquake are the most vulnerable to hunger, as are the outlying districts of the capital Port-au-Prince, such as Cité Soleil, where the city’s largest slum is located.
Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry promised to strengthen the agricultural sector and alleviate the food crisis earlier this year.
He also acknowledged the state’s responsibility for the lack of price control and said that measures would be taken in that direction in the coming weeks.
Henry assured that Haiti could produce the food that the population traditionally consumes and considered importing products that can be harvested domestically counterproductive.