Haitian Farmers Receive Much-Needed Seeds and Tools

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has started distributing US $4 million worth of seeds and tools to thousands of farmers in Haiti. FAO says that it will provide some 600 tons of bean, maize and sorghum seeds as well as hoes and machetes to 70,000 families to help them cope with the rising cost of food, fuel and fertilizer. Haiti, already the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, was particularly hard hit by the global rise in food prices, which led to deadly riots in April. FAO says that more than half of the population in the country lives on less than US$1 per day.

If more funds become available, FAO plans to extend the distribution for the next two planting seasons, in October/November 2008 and February/March 2009, which would aid another 400,000 families.

For more information, read http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2008/1000903/index.html