On January 12, 2010 a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti, killing an estimated 222,653 people and wounding an additional 310,000. The Sud-Est (Southeast) department was one of the worst hit areas. This assessment analyzes the market system for beans in the Sud-Est department of Haiti in March-April 2010. Recommended short-term interventions include seed distributions, scaling down food distributions and cash-based programs to improve the buying power of affected households. Longer-term recommended interventions for improving the overall function of the beans market to mitigate future disruptions include laying the foundation for a functioning private-sector seed system, working with existing or new institutions to provide financial services appropriate for agriculture, working with authorities to approve security at key market places and undertaking disaster risk reduction measures such as improving storage and preservation of surplus harvests.
Report authors:
Laura Meissner, Gerry Delphin, Georges Pierre-Louis, Tim Schwartz, Karri Goeldner Byrne, Gary Bonhomme, and Molière Peronneau