Above: flooding during Sandy (UN Photo/Logan Abassi)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Food insecurity is an increasing problem in Haiti, according to the United Nations World Food Programme.

While Haiti has shown progress over the last three years, the country’s food supply continues to face challenges from tropical storms, drought and the like.

“Critical crop losses have severely reduced access to food and to income opportunities for the rural population and some households in the worst-affected areas have no food stocks available,” said WFP Haiti Country Director Myrta Kaulard in a statement. “As a consequence, food insecurity is on the rise.”

A recent survey found that as many as 119 rural municipalities in Haiti of 140 had been “severely affected” by last year’s drought and Hurricanes Isaac and Sandy.

More than 1.5 million people in Haiti face food insecurity, the WFP said, with more than double that figure in “moderate food insecurity.”

“We need additional resources to help farmers prepare for the next planting season starting in March,” she said. “If we don’t act now we are at risk of losing the hard-won achievements we have seen in Haiti over the past three years.”

Haiti’s Ministry of Agriculture is planning measures to boost Haitian farmers in their efforts to rehabilitate farmland.

The WFP has developed projects that could support up to 225,000 people in Haiti on that front.

The organization said it needed $18 million ton continue “critical projects in Haiti.”