A Global food summit is held from June 3 to 5 in Rome.
Ahead of global summit on the food crisis, the United Nations called on world leaders on Wednesday to agree to urgent measures to ease demand for grains and ease high food prices.
A report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations suggested that countries might need to reconsider policies that encourage the production of ethanol and other biofuels. The report also suggested that the food summit in Rome will give world leaders a chance to renew a war on hunger.
According to Mr.Jacques Diouf, Director General of the Food and Agricultural Organisation, in a prepared statement said, ‘This is a unique moment in history; for the first time in 25 years, a fundamental incentive-high food commodity prices- is in place for stimulating the agriculture sector’
He said that the current food global situation was a reminder that previous commitments to eradicate hunger had not been met. According to his report that 22 countries were particularly vulnerable to sharp increase in food and fuel prices because many of their people were already hungry and they depended on imports for fuel and in some cases for major grains.
Eritrea, for instance, imports 100 % of its petroleum and 88 % of its major grains and three quarters of its population is undernourished. Among the other countries listed were Haiti, Tajikistan, Niger, Botswana, Cambodia and Zambia.
Food prices have soared since 2006, prompting discontent across the globe and in some instances, rioting. The Food Agricultural Organisations’s index of food prices increased 24 % in 2007 compared with the previous year and 53 months in first three months of 2008.
‘The current price rise has affected nearly all major food and feed commodities instead of just a few crops.The current food crisis also reminds us of the fragility of the balance between global food supplies and the needs of the world’s inhabitants and our failure in the eradication of hunger.The current food crisis with a supply and demand imbalance, the cereal markets may not regain their stability.Further price hikes and continued volatility may last for the next few seasons.’ Mr.Jacques Diouf said.