Via ReliefWeb, a report from the Famine Early Warning System: Haiti Food Security Outlook - October 2012 through March 2013. Key points:
• Following a series of different shocks to crop production country-wide since June, food security is steadily deteriorating more quickly than expected. Crop losses and ensuing losses of seasonal income and savings have propelled what are normally minimally food-insecure areas into IPC Phase 2 (stressed).
• Damage caused by Hurricane Sandy in late October could heighten food insecurity levels in certain departments like the Southeast and the West. A number of communes, particularly Pointe Raquette and Bainet in the country’s Western and Southeastern Departments, respectively, could be facing crisis levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase 3) between January and March of next year.
• Staple food prices are unusually high in the aftermath of these shocks, which have caused a decrease in crop production. This is especially hard on poor rural and urban households dependent on market purchase for their food needs. October prices for certain staples such as beans, for example, were already up by 40 percent from July.
