Food, Fuel and Water Crises Converging

from IPS News

The food and fuel crises are bad enough, but add water into the fray and it could be disastrous. The World Bank still insists on water privatization before making loans. - Kale

By Thalif Deen

STOCKHOLM, - "It's the spectre of a food, fuel and water crisis," says Lars Thunell, executive vice president of the Washington-based International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank group.

"I believe we are at a tipping point," he said, because the scarcity of water poses a threat to the food supply just when the agricultural sector is stepping up production in response to riots over food prices, growing hunger, and rising malnutrition.

Speaking at the conclusion of the weeklong Stockholm International Water Conference Friday, Thunell said the growing demand for water is outpacing supply.

The world's current population of over 6.0 billion is expected to rise to about 9.0 billion by 2050, with more than 60 percent living in mega cities.

"Since water consumption goes up where there is development and improved lifestyles, we can expect even greater demands on fresh water," Thunell said.

The most water-intensive sector, agriculture, is expanding and industrialisation and energy production are further driving demand, he added.

The conference, which was attended by over 2,400 water experts and government officials, ended with an ominous warning: that water and sanitation are not far behind the food, energy and climate crises.

Summing up the weeklong proceedings, the Stockholm International Water Institute said that slow progress on sanitation will cause the world to badly fail the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). At the same time, weak policy, poor management, increasing waste and exploding water demands will push the planet towards the tipping point of a global water crisis.

According to U.N. estimates a little less than one billion people worldwide still don't have access to clean drinking water while over 2.6 billion people lack adequate sanitation.

The MDGs aim at a 50 percent reduction both in the number of people without drinking water and without basic sanitation. The deadline has been set at 2015. But most of the world's poorer nations are likely to miss the deadline.

Colin Chartres, director general of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) said the causes of water scarcity are essentially identical to those of the food crisis.

"There are serious and extremely worrying factors that indicate that water supplies are close to exhaustion in some countries," he said.

He pointed out that current estimates indicate the world will not have enough water to feed itself in 40 years time, "by when the current food crisis may turn into a perpetual crisis."

Chartres said he and his water science colleagues have raised a warning flag that significant investments in both research and development and water infrastructure development are needed, "if dire consequences are to be avoided."

IFC's Thunell said providing clean water and sanitation services are not only business opportunities but also opportunities to improve lives. He said investors see an opportunity in the 450-billion-dollar global water sector, where stocks are performing strongly worldwide.

Private firms also regard water supply as a business risk and are tackling it as an integral part of their risk-management strategy.

"I believe the moment is right," Thunell said. "We can avert a crisis -- as partners, working together."

He said IFC will do its part by investing in companies that pursue opportunities in water conservation and quality, and by fostering public-private partnerships in the water sector.

But Patti Lynn, campaigns director of Corporate Accountability International, has a different take on the role of the private sector.

"The crisis stems from a confluence of problems, but perhaps no contributing factor is more insidious and correctable than the privatisation of the resource," she told IPS. "When people's access to clean drinking water is reliant on the profit interests of a handful of transnationals, all of us pay a premium and because of this many of the world's poor go thirsty."

Asked if the international community will meet the MDGs relating to water and sanitation by 2015, she said: "Not if we don't change immediate course."

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African nations gear up to raise rice production

from Commodity Online

A group of NGO's are trying to double rice production in Africa in 10 years. Here are details on the efforts. - Kale

By Savitri Mohapatra

Everyone to the farm,” is the new decree of President Wade of Senegal—a country that has seen massive riots in the last few months, when thousands of citizens carrying empty rice sacks on their heads marched in protest against soaring rice prices. The President has just unveiled an ambitious agricultural plan called the Great Offensive for Food and Abundance (GOANA), which aims to make Senegal self-sufficient in food staples, especially rice.

GOANA’s target is to produce in the next season 500,000 tons of rice—2.5 times more than the current production. Senegal, where rice-fish called cebbu jen is the most popular daily dish, consumes about 800,000 tons of rice per year and nearly 80% of this is imported at a cost of more than 100 billion CFA francs (US$247 million).

Some Senegalese call this the “tyranny of rice” because of its huge negative impact on the national economy. President Wade has said that GOANA will help free Senegal from this tyranny, urging farmers to grow more rice (and even asking his ministers and government officials to farm at least 20 hectares each).

The government has earmarked 750 billion CFA francs ($1.85 billion) for boosting national rice production. The money will be used to improve irrigation facilities and farmers’ access to seed, fertilizer, and equipment.

Similar announcements have been made by governments of several African countries in the wake of the rice crisis—news that comes as a relief to local rice farmers. “We think that the crisis has forced our government to pay attention to local rice production, which has been neglected for so long,” says Abdoulaye Ouédraogo, a rice farmer from Burkina Faso, which is now investing massively in agriculture.

He added that if the government had listened to the farmers earlier, the country would not have been in such a crisis, referring to food riots that recently broke out in the cities. As expected, in contrast to urban consumers, African farmers are happy about the high price of rice. “I have never seen this kind of price hike in 30 years,” says Abdoulaye. “Just a few months ago, 1 kilogram of paddy [unhulled] rice was selling here for 110 CFA francs [$0.27] and now it is 225 CFA francs [$0.56].” In neighboring Mali, the grain is so much in the limelight today that some citizens joke the country will soon have a Minister of Rice.

In April 2008, the government launched an Initiative riz (rice initiative) as “a structural response to the rice crisis.”

The aim of this program is to double Mali’s annual milled rice production in 2008-09 to 1 million tons, which will not only meet domestic demand but also provide a surplus of 100,000 tons for export. In addition, Prime Minister Modibo Sidibé is placing considerable importance on the national rice research program. “There is no agricultural development without research,” he said. According to the Africa RiceCenter (WARDA), the rice crisis offers a big opportunity for Africa to use its latent potential for production and break from decades of policy bias against agriculture.

Except for Egypt, Africa is a net importer of rice with Nigeria, South Africa, Senegal, and Côte d’Ivoire ranking among the top 10 importers of rice in the world. With nearly 40% of the continent’s total rice consumption coming from the international market, African national rice economies are more exposed to unpredictable external supply and price shocks than those of other continents.

Africa is especially vulnerable because of the high prevalence of poverty and food insecurity. “Africa faces not only problems of affordability of rice but also of availability in the international market because of the rice export bans by several countries,” says WARDA Director General Papa Abdoulaye Seck. “Since 2006, WARDA has been systematically alerting the governments of its member states to a looming rice crisis in Africa.”

According to Dr. Seck, the best option for Africa to manage the crisis is to combine emergency responses in the short term with measures that favor sustainable expansion of the continent’s rice supply in the longer term. Short-term measures include reduction of customs duties and taxes on imported rice and setting up of mechanisms to avoid speculation in rice markets. At the same time, governments must avoid undermining incentives for domestic rice production.

In the medium and long term, taxes on all critical inputs, cost saving agricultural machinery and equipment, and post harvest technologies need to be reduced. Governments should also facilitate access to credit for farmers, expand rice areas under irrigation, and improve rural infrastructure. There also needs to be concerted investment in regional research capacity to support the development of rice varieties resistant to major pests and diseases and sufficiently robust to withstand drought and climate change induced environmental shocks.

To assist the African countries that have been severely hit by soaring prices, an Emergency Rice Initiative for Africa was launched in June 2008 by WARDA, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations(FAO), IFDC (an international center for soil fertility and agricultural development), Catholic Relief Services, and the International Fund for Agricultural Development. Urgent assistance will be provided to 11 pilot countries in four major areas: seed, fertilizer, best-bet technologies, and postharvest and marketing. WARDA, the International Rice Research Institute, FAO, and Sasakawa Global 2000 will play a key role in enhancing Africa’s rice research capacity and facilitating access to important rice information and knowledge.

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Growing our own food - South Africa

from the Mail and Guardian

This article profiles new food co-operatives in South Africa that are being used to combat rising food prices. - Kale

by NOSIMILO NDLOVU

Salaminah Motsoagae (23) is a single mother who lives in an informal settlement in Orange Farm, Gauteng. She lives with her mother, who is a domestic worker and the only income earner in the family.

Rising food prices have put a financial strain on Motsoagae's family, leaving them with less money than before to buy food. "We are down to two meals a day," she says.

"Things are especially tough on people in my community who are HIV-positive because they must eat a nutritional meal each time they have to take their antiretrovirals (ARVs). Most of the time there just isn't enough for them to eat and they become very ill. Our government needs a wake-up call because we cannot continue to live like this."

Motsoagae and her family are among the estimated 1,7-billion people worldwide lacking basic food security as prices soar.

It was against this background that a public policy debate was organised recently ahead of the Southern African Development Community summit in Johannesburg to raise awareness on the extent of the food crisis and explore policy options for urgent action.

Speaking at the panel discussion on food security in Southern Africa, Professor Sam Moyo says: "Food security is not about the physical availability or scarcity of food at the national and household level, but also the qualitative degree and temporality of access in relation to nourishment, social resilience and vulnerability."

Moyo says domestic food production and consumption per capita have declined and led to persistent chronic food insecurity among at least 40% of the regional African population. "These are extremely poor, both as a cause and effect of food insecurity."

Jemina Mkhize, a pensioner from eMpendle, a small rural area in KwaZulu-Natal, says she believes the government should support small-scale farmers and improve rural development as one of the main solutions to the food crisis. "I have a fairly big yard and my house is not that big, so I am left with quite a lot of space to grow food to feed my family. I have spinach, potatoes, cabbages and pumpkin growing in my own backyard," she says with pride.

"I couldn't afford to take a bus to town every weekend to buy food -- the transport was getting expensive, the food was getting expensive. I could see starvation getting closer for my grandchildren, so I decided to spend my money buying seeds to plant the food myself. Now I not only feed my own family, but other people in my community who go hungry because they cannot afford the high-priced food."

Mkhize says the people in her community are working together to secure land they can use to farm food to feed the community, adding that more and more people are opening their gates to allow community members to use their land to plant vegetables.

"This poverty is contributing to more people getting sick. People are weak and falling ill easily, therefore not being able to work at a time when they need all the money they can get to feed their families. If the government wants to solve [the problems of] crime, unemployment, HIV/Aids and TB, it must look at solving the food crisis."

Beatrice Mkwaila of the National Smallholder Farmers' Association of Malawi, says the country's economy is almost entirely dependent on agriculture, which provides 85% of the population with its livelihood. She says while the estate sector is a significant contributor to the economic picture it is not the largest, "for in Malawi the largest producers are the smallest".

Smallholders constitute 90% of Malawi's farmers, but they face a range of challenges including poor infrastructure, lack of resources, lack of access to value-adding technologies, dependency on rain-fed agriculture, increasing costs of production and unreliable produce markets.

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India sees food crisis easing as plantings rise across the world

from the Wall Street Journal's Live Mint

Finally some good news! Signs that the world food crisis is easing. - Kale

Farmers from Australia to China have increased plantings of wheat, corn, rice and soya bean, helping stockpiles gain from 30-year lows

by Thomas Kutty Abraham and Pratik Parija

Mumbai / New Delhi: A worldwide food crisis that sent wheat, corn and rice prices to records and sparked riots earlier this year may be over after farmers increased plantings, a top official at the ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution said.

“I don’t think there’s a crisis now,” said T. Nanda Kumar, food secretary, who is responsible for formulating food security policy in the world’s second most populous nation. “Food will be available.”

Farmers from Australia to China have increased plantings of wheat, corn, rice and soya bean, helping stockpiles gain from 30-year lows. An end to the crisis may help countries including India and Egypt ease trade barriers and cool inflation.

The global production outlook for wheat and soya bean is “very good,” while rice is still expensive, Kumar said on 18 August. “Rice is softening, but I don’t think it has softened adequately.”

Still, grain prices will remain higher than the average of the past five years even as production improves, he said.

Soaring food and energy prices increased the number of hungry people by about 50 million last year, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. The food shortage spurred strikes in Argentina, riots in Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Morocco and Ivory Coast, and a crackdown on illicit exports in Pakistan and the Philippines.

The UBS Bloomberg Constant Maturity Commodity Index of 26 raw materials more than trebled in the past six years as global demand led by China outpaced supplies of crops and metals.

Rice has tumbled 29% from its record, while wheat and corn have dropped 35% and 26% from their peaks.

India, the second biggest producer of rice and wheat, may need a second “green revolution” to meet food demand driven by rising incomes among its 1.1 billion people, Kumar said.

M.S. Swaminathan, the 83-year-old agriculture scientist who spearheaded the country’s Green Revolution in the 1960s, has said the solution to higher farm output lies in providing better remuneration to growers.

“You may call it by any name, what we need is more food,” said Kumar. India needs to increase its wheat and rice production by 3.5 million tonnes (mt) every year to meet its growing demand and cover emergencies, he said.

Supplies of farm products haven’t kept pace with demand from consumers who have become richer in the past five years as India’s economy registered the fastest economic expansion since independence.

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Dubai forum to focus on global food crisis

from Emirates Business

The impact of the global food crisi in the middle east will be the subject of an upcoming conference in Dubai. - Kale

The crisis has triggered a broad review of agricultural and economic priorities in the region, where nearly all the states are net food importers. And new challenges such as climate change have hit agricultural production in the poorest countries.

These problems will be discussed at the 2008 Regional Round Table Meeting on Commodity Development. The event is being held on August 24 and 25 by Amsterdam-based Common Fund for Commodities, an international financial institution established by the United Nations.

The round table meetings are normally held in Africa, Asia and Latin America. However, this year the fund decided to hold a separate session in Dubai to address the unique needs and requirements of the region's commodity sector.

"We're holding the 2008 meeting here in Dubai to elevate regional public attention to a number of important issues related to the ongoing food crisis and its impact on the Middle East," said Ali Mchumo, the organisation's managing director.

"We need to rethink and formulate innovative pathways for new policies to boost investments in regional and global agricultural productivity to meet the growing demand for food.

"Certainly this is one way to connect the importance of international action and co-operation on commodity development in producing countries, which form the majority of the fund's membership. The international community must address both the matter of the food crisis and security, as well as economic growth on the part of commodity producers, since their full participation in global trade is the only realistic solution for ending poverty and guaranteeing sustainable food production, supply and security."

The meeting, which has been organised with help from the UAE's Ministry of Environment and Water, will focus on the importance of commodity-related economic development in the Middle East and the Arab World.

Many of the challenges faced by the region are common in the world. But a combination of factors such as climate change, desertification and rising energy production and consumption costs means it is imperative that the Middle East increase its regional integration efforts, says the fund.

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Millions eating food grown with polluted water, says UN report

from the Guardian

A study finds widespread use of waste water used for growing crops. At least 200 million people are at risk of disease from this use of waste water. The study from the UN surveyed 53 cities thought the word. - Kale

by John Vidal

Urban farmers in 80% of the cities surveyed were found to be using untreated waste water, but the study said they also provided vital food for burgeoning cities at a time of unprecedented water scarcity and the worst food crisis in 30 years.

The study from the UN-backed International Water Management Institute (IMWI), said the practice of using waste water to grow food in urban areas was not confined to the poorest countries.

"It's a widespread phenomenon, occurring on 20m hectares across the developing world, especially in Asian countries like China, India and Vietnam, but also around nearly every city of sub-Saharan Africa and in many Latin American cities as well," said IWMI researcher Liqa Raschid-Sally.

"Nor is it limited to the countries and cities with the lowest GDP. It is prevalent in many mid-income countries as well", she said.

The report, launched today at World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden, found the practice "widespread and practically inevitable".

"As long as developing countries lack suitable transport to deliver large quantities of perishable produce to urban areas, urban agriculture will remain important. In the face of water scarcity generally and a lack of access to clean water, urban farmers will have no alternative except to use … polluted water", write the authors.

The report found that few developing countries have official guidelines for the use of waste water in agriculture. Even if they do, monitoring and enforcement rarely happen and may not be realistic. As a result, though the practice may be theoretically forbidden or controlled, it is "unofficially tolerated."

Earlier in 2008, the UN's World Health Organization stated that a global environmental and health crisis was unfolding with more than 200m tonnes of human waste a year being dumped untreated in water systems, exposing hundreds of millions of people to disease.

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Soaring fertiliser prices threaten world's poorest farmers

from the Guardian

A lot of the stories we share on here only touch on the fertilizer issue. This one gives more detail on how the higher costs of fertilizer is hurting food supply. - Kale

by John Vidal

A global fertiliser crisis caused by high oil prices and the US rush to biofuel crops is reducing the harvests of the world's poorest farmers and could lead to millions more people going hungry, according to the UN and global food analysts.

Optimism that soaring food commodity prices could lift millions of developing country farmers out of poverty and lead to more food being grown have been dashed, says the UN. This is because small farmers either consume their own crop or have no access to global markets to take advantage of the higher food prices.

There is little prospect of relief. A world fertiliser forecast report, due to be published by the UN this week but seen by the Guardian, states that prices will remain high for at least three years and possibly longer.

Fertiliser prices have mostly doubled and in some cases risen by 500% in 15 months as US farmers have rushed to plant more biofuel crops and countries such as India and China have bought fertiliser stocks in large quantities to guarantee their food stocks.

But while the unprecedented price explosion has barely affected large commercial farmers, it is leading directly to civil unrest among small farmers in developing countries. There have been fertiliser riots or demonstrations in Vietnam, India, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, Egypt, Pakistan and Taiwan in the last few months. Last week one man was killed in a stampede at a government handout of fertiliser in Hyderabad, India.

Senior UN Food and Agriculture organisation analyst Dr Jan Poulisse warned the poor were being hurt the most by the crisis. "High commodity prices allow commercial farmers in developed countries to cope with high fertiliser prices. But rising food prices hurt subsistence farmers, particularly in Africa," Poulisse told the Guardian. "People just cannot afford [fertiliser]. They were in dire straits before, but now the situation is worse."

Farmers in sub-Saharan Africa have been hardest hit because they have the least chance to benefit from soaring food prices on the world market, but desperately need fertilisers to replenish nutrient-depleted soils.

World fertiliser prices have risen more than oil or any other commodities in the last 18 months. Of the three main types, diammonium phosphate (Dap) sold for US $250 per tonne in January 2007 but has risen to $1,230 per tonne. Potash-based fertilisers have risen from $172 to over $500 a tonne, and nitrogen based fertilisers have risen from $277 to over $450 per tonne.

Much of the price rise is attributed to first world farmers who have applied high levels of fertilisers to maximise harvests of grain to take advantage of record grain prices, said Dr Balu Bumb, policy leader at the International centre for Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development (IFDC) in the US.

The UN fertiliser forecast blames capacity constraints for the price rises. "Strong global demand for fertilisers is stretching current production capacity to its technical limits. This situation will persist until new capacity comes on line", it states.

"It can take 5-7 years to open a phosphate mine, 10 years for a potash mine and three years for a major nitrogen plant", said Dr Poulisse, one of the report's authors. At least 50 new plants to make nitrogen fertiliser are believed to be under construction, and phosphorous and potassium mines are being expanded.

Fertiliser prices have in the past been largely controlled by governments because they are so politically sensitive. But keeping prices down in the current crisis is now impacting heavily on other areas, such as education and health.

India is expecting to have to spend $24bn supporting fertiliser prices this year compared to only $4bn three years ago and countries such as Malawi have had to borrow millions to introduce a fertiliser subsidy programme. However, the president of Malawi admitted last week that the subsidy programme was failing the poor. "Sadly, it is the rich who are benefiting a great deal. They are selling maize to the poor at exorbitant prices," he said.

Agriculture and development experts say the world has few alternatives to its growing dependence on fertiliser. As population increases and a rising global middle class demands more food, fertiliser has become the preferred route to higher yields.

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[comment] How to solve the growing global food crisis, in three steps

from the New York Daily News

Bono's guru finally weighs in on the global food crisis. - Kale

BY JEFFREY SACHS

The surge of world food prices this year came like a bolt out of the blue, but warning lights were in fact flashing. Imbalances of global food supply and demand had been building for years beneath the public view.

It's our job now to restore a balance of food supply and demand, and to defuse the long-term factors that can still come back to haunt us.

To date, American policy has been part of the problem, not the solution. In a mix of misguided energy policy and brazen special interest politics, the U.S. adopted a bio-fuel boondoggle. Taxpayers pay billions of dollars each year to subsidize large grain companies to covert corn to ethanol. Yet on balance, corn-based ethanol saves little if any oil and natural gas, since the production of corn and its conversion to bio-fuel uses enormous amounts of energy. Meanwhile, ethanol drives up world food prices, especially considering that as much as one-third of the total corn crop this year is destined for the gas tank.

To add insult to injury, for decades the U.S. and Europe lectured Africa, Haiti and other poor countries not to subsidize their own farmers - even for farmers so deep in poverty that they can't afford to buy the most basic inputs of fertilizer and high-yield seeds in order to get started as commercial farmers.

That bad advice is only now ending, but as a result of it, Africa's and Haiti's peasant farmers have remained stuck with the world's lowest grain yields, roughly one third or one fourth of what they'd get if they planted with fertilizer and improved seeds. Matters have gotten worse over time, as soils have been depleted of nutrients because of the failure to replenish the depleted tropical soils with a proper mix of chemical and organic fertilizers. In our misguided and lobby-driven politics, we wait for food disasters to strike, and then ship emergency food aid.

We have the opportunity to start fixing things, for our own good and the world's, if we do three things fast.

First, the U.S. and other rich countries should increase funding for the World Food Program so that it can cover the rising costs of its urgent programs to feed the world's hungriest and most vulnerable people. The WFP needs around $2 billion in the coming year, which comes to around $2 per each person in the U.S., Europe and Japan.

Second, we need to cut drastically the misguided U.S. bio-fuels program. This will save billions of taxpayer dollars, lower food prices and help to relieve the crisis hitting the poorest of the poor. We should focus instead on developing a second generation of bio-fuels using woodchips and other nonfood biomass rather than corn.

Third, let's truly help Africa, Haiti and other impoverished countries end the cycle of famine and emergency food aid, by helping the poorest farmers get started with fertilizer, improved seeds and small-scale irrigation equipment where applicable. Africa could double its food production within five years. There's already one success story: the southern African country of Malawi, which has roughly doubled its food production since 2005.

Doubling grain production in sub-Saharan Africa would mean roughly 100 million tons more of cereal grains, more than enough to replace its current imports of around 35 million tons. The cost to the rich countries would be around $10 per person per year, one of the great bargains on the planet. Food prices would ease worldwide.

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Africa's Last and Least

from the Washington Post
In Burkina Faso, many women prepare the meals, but have the rest of their family eat, while they go without. A great story here on the global food crisis. - Kale

Cultural Expectations Ensure Women Are Hit Hardest by Burgeoning Food Crisis

By Kevin Sullivan

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso

After she woke in the dark to sweep city streets, after she walked an hour to buy less than $2 worth of food, after she cooked for two hours in the searing noon heat, Fanta Lingani served her family's only meal of the day.

First she set out a bowl of corn mush, seasoned with tree leaves, dried fish and wood ashes, for the 11 smallest children, who tore into it with bare hands.

Then she set out a bowl for her husband. Then two bowls for a dozen older children. Then finally, after everyone else had finished, a bowl for herself. She always eats last.

A year ago, before food prices nearly doubled, Lingani would have had three meals a day of meat, rice and vegetables. Now two mouthfuls of bland mush would have to do her until tomorrow.

Rubbing her red-rimmed eyes, chewing lightly on a twig she picked off the ground, Lingani gave the last of her food to the children.

"I'm not hungry," she said.

In poor nations, such as Burkina Faso in the heart of West Africa, mealtime conspires against women. They grow the food, fetch the water, shop at the market and cook the meals. But when it comes time to eat, men and children eat first, and women eat last and least.

Soaring prices for food and fuel have pushed more than 130 million poor people across vast swaths of Africa, Asia and Latin America deeper into poverty in the past year, according to the U.N. World Food Program (WFP). But while millions of men and children are also hungrier, women are often the hungriest and skinniest. Aid workers say malnutrition among women is emerging as a hidden consequence of the food crisis.

"It's a cultural thing," said Herve Kone, director of a group that promotes development, social justice and human rights in Burkina Faso. "When the kids are hungry, they go to their mother, not their father. And when there is less food, women are the first to eat less."

A recent study by the aid group Catholic Relief Services found that many people in Burkina Faso are now spending 75 percent or more of their income on food, leaving little for other basic needs such as medical care, school fees and clothes.

Pregnant women and young mothers are forgoing medical care. More women are turning to prostitution to pay for food. And more families are pulling children -- especially girls -- out of school.

The food crisis has not yet led to famine, and in places such as Burkina Faso, people generally appear relatively healthy. The WFP and other agencies have pumped in millions of dollars' worth of aid and food, and markets generally are well-stocked -- just prohibitively expensive. But for poor people, food is increasingly difficult to come by, and many families sometimes eat as little as one meal a day. Aid agencies worry about the long-term effects of dramatically reduced diets.

As the crisis continues to build around the world, perhaps its most pervasive effect is the ache in the stomachs of millions of poor women like Fanta Lingani.
Sweeping for Pennies

Lingani, who sleeps on a concrete floor, began one recent day at 4 a.m. and dressed quietly in the dark. All around her, children slept on the cracked floor under a tin roof, common conditions in a country that ranks 176th out of 177 on the U.N. Human Development Index.

A year ago, Lingani might have started a small fire to boil herself a cup of weak coffee. But even that is now too expensive.

Such sacrifices led to food riots in February in Ouagadougou, the capital, and towns across the country. Hundreds of people were arrested after they set fires and smashed government buildings to protest rising prices. But for Lingani, the struggle is quieter, and harder by the day, and it starts before the sun comes up.

Lingani, who said she is about 50, walked across the dirt courtyard past the two-room hut where her husband was sleeping in his own double bed, with a thick mattress. The dirt street outside was muddy and steamy from an overnight rain shower.

After a half-hour walk on the black-dark streets, she reported for work and pulled on the long green smock of the Green Brigade, a city program that pays poor women the equivalent of about $1.20 a day to sweep streets two mornings a week.

Lingani picked up a pair of small straw brooms and pushed a wheelbarrow onto a wide, deserted avenue. In the orange haze of streetlights, she bent over at the waist, so far that her bottom was higher than her head, and started pushing red dust into little piles.

The "shssssh shssssh" of her sweeping was the only sound, except for the crowing of a few roosters and occasional laughter from men at an all-night bar down the road.

She worked a section of road about 150 yards long, while a dozen others in the all-female brigade swept along. A tanker truck sped down the street, kicking up a cloud of dust into her face and blowing away her little piles. She coughed, pulled her pink head scarf across her face and swept the same dust all over again.

Lingani swept until the sun came up, pushing her piles onto a small metal dish, then dumping them into a wheelbarrow and finally into a pothole on an unpaved side street.

By 7 a.m., she'd finished her section. But she had to wait an hour for a male supervisor to show up and check her work. In two weeks, she would get her monthly pay of less than $10.
'The Job of Women'

Lingani walked a half hour back to her house, where her huge family was starting to stir. She took off her smock and picked up a green plastic basket about the size of a shoebox.

Market time. She and one of her two "co-wives," Asseta Zagre, do the shopping on alternate days. Their husband's other wife, the senior of the three, is nearly blind and can't do chores anymore.

Polygamy is common in much of Africa. In this household, the patriarch is Hamado Zorome, 68, a retired police officer whose pension is the family's main income -- but he doesn't tell his wives how much he gets.

The pension of a mid-level civil servant is probably modest in Burkina Faso, where the United Nations says nearly 72 percent of the country's 15 million people live on less than $2 a day.

Zorome also collects a "tip" of 60 cents from each of his two working wives when they get their monthly pay, which he uses to buy the kola nuts he likes to chew.

Lingani and Zagre, who also sweeps streets, said Zorome doles out small amounts of money for them to buy staples such as cornmeal. But the bulk of the family's meals are paid for out of the wives' sweeping wages.

Preparing to leave for the market, Lingani kept bending over and rubbing her ankles and feet. She said they hurt from sweeping for so long. She has never weighed herself, but she said she can feel a significant loss in her weight and strength in the past year.

Last month's sweeping money was already gone. So she went to her husband, who handed her about $2.50 for groceries. He told her to spend no more than about 75 cents and save the rest for another day. "Women are born with this job" of feeding the family, Lingani said, as she walked around puddles and past goats tied to trees. "The man has to have his share. And we have to make sure the kids have their share. So we eat less."

Lingani said none of the older boys in the family has a steady job, since work is hard to come by in this poor city, so the boys mostly spend their days doing odd jobs or playing soccer. What little money they earn they tend to spend on food and beer for themselves, she said.

"A man can never sit at home. They are always out somewhere," Lingani said. "They don't do anything. They don't help."

Lingani walked past stands where women were selling fruit or water, assisted by small girls. A few men sold bags or charcoal, but most were sitting in the shade and talking.

"Men and women should fight together for the children," Lingani said. "But if the men won't do that, the women have to fight alone."

Zorome, Lingani's husband, said that men don't help with shopping and cooking because "that is the job of women." Like many men interviewed here, he said African culture clearly defines roles for men, who work outside the house, and women, who manage children and meals.

He said that men are willing to work but that jobs are scarce. He would prefer it if his wives didn't have to sweep streets, but "life is much more expensive now."

"Last year, we could eat well, but now, forget it," he said. "My sons don't work, so it's up to me to feed 25 people. That's why the women sweep. We don't have anything, so they have to work. That's life."

On her way to the market, Lingani explained the ugly math: A year ago, she could feed her entire family a nutritious meal of meat and vegetables and peanut sauce for about 75 cents. But now the family gets much lower-quality food for twice the price.

She said the cost of six pounds of cornmeal has risen from 75 cents to $1.50. A kilogram -- 2.2 pounds -- of rice cost 60 cents last year and costs a little more than $1 now. Other basics such as salt and cooking oil have also doubled in price.

Fuel costs have more than doubled for trucks that haul food to landlocked Burkina Faso, helping keep food prices high.

Beef or goat meat is now so expensive -- about $1.20 for a tiny portion -- that the family has given up meat completely, eating cheap dried fish instead. Rather than seasoning their sauces with vegetables and peanuts, they now use the tough leaves of baobab trees, the gnarly giants that flourish here in the dry lands south of the Sahara.

To soften the leaves' sour taste, Lingani mixes in potash, a paste made by boiling down water strained through ashes.

"In the past, our money would last the whole month. We might even have some left over," Lingani said. "But now as soon as it arrives, we spend it."

Dinner happens only if there is a bit of food left over from lunch. Even then, she said, there is rarely enough left for women.

"When the children ask for food, we have to give it to them," she said. "We're mothers."
Never Enough

"Are you sure you don't want more?" the vegetable vendor asked Lingani. "Is that enough for your family?"

Lingani, standing in a crowded neighborhood market, had just asked the woman for 30 cents' worth of baobab leaves.

"No, it's fine," Lingani said, handing over a few coins.

The vendor shrugged and stashed the coins under a sack of tomatoes covered with a beard of small flies. She handed Lingani some change, which she counted carefully.

At the next stall, Lingani bought four small onions. As she turned to leave, the seller tossed in a fifth with an understanding smile. Lingani caught her eye and thanked her.

Moving through the churning mass of people, Lingani bought a bag of dried fish, a small plastic bag of salt, two small cubes of beef bouillon and a bag of potash, the paste made from ashes.

In 10 minutes, her shopping was done. She had spent double her budget of 75 cents.

After the half-hour walk home, with the temperature already above 90, Lingani and Zagre started plucking the baobab she bought at the market, saving the leaves and throwing away the thick stems.

For an hour, the two women methodically pounded the rough leaves in a wooden bowl, then dumped them into a pot boiling over a wood fire. Then Lingani added the dried fish and some of the ash flavoring.

"Of course we would prefer something else," she said. "But it's the cheapest thing we can buy, and we can afford enough to feed everybody."

Two hours after she started cooking, Lingani scooped out six bowls of flavorless food. The first was for Zorome, delivered to his hut. He ate it alone, then said he felt as though he needed a nap.

Others were set aside to be shared by the children.

The last bowl, slightly larger than Zorome's, was to be shared by 10 people: Lingani, Zagre and eight small grandchildren. Lingani took two bites before letting five hungry toddlers finish her food.

Near the front gate, half a dozen children sat in a circle. They had built a play fire out of pieces of bark. On top they had placed a plastic cup, overflowing with street garbage.

They were pretending to cook. "We're cooking rice with meat!" said a beaming Ousmane, 6, the head chef.

His father, Zorome, watched the game and laughed. He was asked if he would eat again today. Yes, he said, Lingani would make him a little rice or porridge for dinner that night.

Nearby, his daughters and granddaughters heard him and exploded. "What are you talking about?" they said. "Why are you saying that? We have no food."

Zorome smiled sadly and admitted his lie.

"When we have food one day, we have to tighten our belt the next," he said. "But it is very hard for a man to admit when things are not good."

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EU executive endorses farm aid plan for Africa

from Reuters

Here are some more details on the EU's newly proposed food fund. It is already being welcomed by NGO's that work in Africa. - Kale

By Jeremy Smith

BRUSSELS - The European Commission backed a plan on Friday to give 1 billion euros to farmers in Africa next year to help tackle high food prices and boost output, despite opposition by many EU states.

The EU cash, largely the result of underspending and leeway in the bloc's massive agriculture budget, comprises 750 million euros earmarked for 2008 and the remainder for 2009. This year's amount could be given retrospectively from mid-June.

At least eight EU member countries, including Britain, Sweden and the Netherlands, have questioned the legality of the scheme but have not challenged the merit of the idea.

EU ministers and the European Parliament, which has also voiced doubts about using unspent EU farm funds, will have to agree to the plan before it can enter into force. The Commission would like cash to start flowing in early January 2009.

"There's a fairly broad consensus on the need to act here, given the crisis which is taking place," Commission spokesman Johannes Laitenberger told a daily news briefing.

"In the Commission's opinion, this is the most efficient and most rapid instrument that could be used."

If approved, the money will be channelled to developing countries through international or regional organisations, such as the United Nations and World Food Programme.

Four areas of financial support are envisaged, the main two being to improve access to farming "inputs" like fertilisers and seeds and ways to improve agricultural capacity and production.

But the most difficult debate may come after the summer: how to set eligibility criteria for recipient countries and how much cash will be allocated by country. Those negotiations should be concluded by December, the Commission says.

Criteria are expected to include how much food a country produces to feed itself, its political stability and social vulnerability, its level of food price inflation and reliance on food imports -- including shipments of food aid.

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UN chief calls for sharp hike in world farm output

from the AFP via Google



A farmer collects melons from his field in Djilakh, Senegal

The UN chief speaks out on the Global food crisis, during debate at the UN General Assembly. - Kale

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Friday called for a sharp hike in world farm output, warning that high food and fuel prices threatened much of the progress made in reaching global poverty-reduction targets.

Addressing a day-long debate of the UN General Assembly on the global food and energy crisis, the secretary general warned: "the double jeopardy of high food and fuel prices threatens to undermine much of the progress made in achieving the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs)."

And he noted that the effects of climate change, including increased exposure to drought, rising temperatures, more erratic rainfall and extreme weather events, were threatening water and agricultural systems, potentially triggering malnutrition and water shortages for millions of people.

"To reach the MDG on reducing poverty and hunger (by 2015), we need a Global Partnership for Food. Governments must be at the center, but we all have to work together," Ban said.

"We must act immediately to boost agricultural production this year," he added.

"We do this by providing urgently needed seeds and fertilizers for the upcoming planting cycles," especially for the world's 450 million small-scale farmers."

Ban said UN agencies were already doing so, but added: "with so many millions of people threatened by this crisis, all of us, including member states, need to do much more -- immediately."

He hailed the European Commission's proposal Friday to set a special facility worth a total of 1.5 billion dollars for a rapid response to the food crisis.

The secretary also outlined a broad strategy that would scale up food aid and other nutrition interventions, hike predictable financial support for food aid, exempt purchases of humanitarian relief food from export restrictions and set up a global reserve system for humanitarian food.

He said it was also high time "to reverse the dramatic and deplorable downward trend in agriculture's share in official development assistance (ODA) by rich nations. ODA for farming has fallen from 18 percent 20 years ago to just around three percent today, he noted.

Ban also urged the eight leading industrialized countries to improve fair trade and the free flow of markets by cutting their farm subsidies.

He said investment in farming and rural development must be significantly boosted and global food commodity markets strengthened to meet the needs of all countries and people, particularly the poor.

Ban also addressed the need to reassess subsidies and tariff protection for biofuel production.

"It is true that biofuels will need to remain a part of the equation in our fight against climate change," he noted.

"But we also need to establish an international consensus and agreed policy guidelines on ways to balance the development of biofuels with food production priorities."

France's UN Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, speaking on the behalf of the 27-member European Union, welcomed the UN chief's call for a Global Partnership for Food.

And he stressed the need to boost global food security through for greater coherence in trade, environmental, monetary, fiscal and legal policies.

Ripert said all stakeholders, international institutions, farm groups, enterprises, civil society, institutional investors and the banking sector, should be associated to this effort.

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EU proposes $1.6 B for food

from the Winnipeg Sun

The EU is making a move to help in the global food crisis. They have asked member nations to ratify this proposal by November. - Kale

BRUSSELS, Belgium — The European Union is proposing a $1.6-billion, two-year emergency fund to help poor countries cope with the global food crisis.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso says the fund will aim to help mostly African nations and stabilize supply markets.

The fund has been put together from cash that has gone unspent in this year’s EU farm budget.


The EU Commission will only give out cash to countries that are found to be the most reliant on food imports and have been hardest hit by food price inflation.

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WTO deal among keys for food security - UK government

from Reuters


Even prosperous countries are growing more food due to food secuirity concerns. As this Reuters article explains, the British government has a new report on ways to tackle the global food crisis. - Kale

By Nigel Hunt

LONDON - More fertiliser in Africa, a global trade pact and maybe even genetically modified crops could help tackle global food security as rising prices drive millions into poverty, Britain's farm ministry said on Thursday.

Britons are increasingly growing their own food as prices rise and fears mount about future supplies, the ministry said in a report launching a debate on food security.

"High energy prices, poor harvests, rising demand from a growing population, use of biofuels and export bans have all pushed up prices and ... have sparked riots and instability in a number of countries around the world," the report said.

"The effects of these price increases are pushing millions of people in developing countries further into poverty and hunger," it added.

The ministry said global stability depended on there being enough food in the world to feed everyone and for it to be distributed in a way that was fair to all, criticising farm subsidies in the European Union and the United States.

"EU and U.S. tariffs and subsidies hinder the development of the agricultural sector in poorer economies," the report said, adding a world trade pact could lift millions out of poverty.

"They offer unfair incentives to farmers in developed countries to produce food, they deny poorer countries access to markets through protecting tariff barriers and they undermine local production in poorer countries."

Trade ministers from around the world are due to meet at the World Trade Organisation from next Monday as they seek to make a breakthough in the Doha round of negotiations.

The report said average the tariff on non-agricultural goods was 4 percent but tariffs of 70 percent were not uncommon for commodities such as sugar and beef under the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy.

AFRICAN FERTILISER

It said increasing productivity in developing countries would require more fertiliser. Fertiliser use in Africa was the world's lowest at 8 kg per hectare, against 311 kg in Britain.

Genetically modified (GM) crops could also have a role in helping meet future demand for food.

"It is possible that GM crops may be able to make an important contribution to improving crop yields and resilience. We need to see how the technology develops but we must not compromise safety or harm the environment," the report said.

The ministry said there was some evidence that growing demand for biofuels had contributed to rising food prices although the extent of the contribution was unclear.

Britain now produces 60 percent of its food, down from about 80 percent in the mid-1980s when output was boosted by European Union subsidies and trade barriers.

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IMF gives Haiti more aid to cope with rising prices

from Caribbean 360

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has given Haiti an additional US$26.5 million in assistance to help it cope with the impact of rising food and fuel prices, following its third review of Haiti's economic performance under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) arrangement.

The completion of the review will enable the immediate disbursement of US$38.7 million.

"Despite numerous external shocks, including rising international commodity prices and inclement weather, as well as political difficulties, Haiti's performance under its PRGF-supported programme and progress in structural reform have been commendable," said the IMF's Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair of the Executive Board, Takatoshi Kato.

"However, sharply rising inflation, largely attributable to increases in international food and fuel prices, has been a challenge and is creating additional hardship for Haiti's large vulnerable population."

He pointed out that the authorities have appropriately put into place immediate measures to stabilise food prices, and are stepping up targeted measures to, among other things, expand school feeding programmes, create jobs through public works programmes, and boost domestic agricultural production.

"Although risks have increased, the Haitian government has displayed its ability and commitment to maintaining macroeconomic stability in the face of adversity. It is important that the international community stay firmly engaged to help Haiti through the current difficult period, to both help safeguard the gains already achieved and set the course going forward to boost growth and employment prospects, and improve living standards," Mr Kato noted.

He however added that there is a need to prioritise and cautiously manage budget execution during the remainder of the fiscal year.

"A continued strong focus on modernising customs and tax administration to raise revenues and meeting donor conditionality to receive pledged budgetary support will also be important," the IMF official suggested.

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World Bank report could undermine biofuel support

from Reuters

By Lesley Wroughton - Analysis

WASHINGTON - A leading World Bank economist's claims that biofuels are a major cause of soaring world food prices could further undermine support for the alternative fuel worldwide and cause tensions with the White House, which fervently supports the new industry.

The draft report by the World Bank's top agricultural economist, Don Mitchell, estimates that the growing use of food for fuel, combined with low grain stocks, market speculation and export food bans, contributed as much as 75 percent of the 140 percent rise in prices between January 2002 and February 2008.

The remainder of the increase is due to a weakening U.S. dollar, higher energy prices and related increases in fertilizer costs, he said.

"Increased biofuel production has increased the demand for food crops and been the major cause of the increase in food prices," said Mitchell, who is widely respected for his work on agricultural policies and production.

Mitchell's preliminary finding of 75 percent has sparked a heated debate because it goes beyond most other estimates.

So far, estimates have ranged between 2-3 percent, by the Bush administration, and up to 30 percent by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

There is growing concern the U.S. ethanol industry is a big part of food inflation, with the sector on tap to buy up to one-third of the U.S. corn crop -- a grain normally used for food and livestock feed.

According to Mitchell, growing biofuels production is the main reason for the rise in food prices.

He said export bans and speculative activity increased as a result of rising prices and would not have occurred without higher costs. Also, higher energy and fertilizer prices would have increased crop output costs by about 15 percent in the United States and by less in other countries with less-intensive production practices.

Moreover, successive droughts that ravaged wheat crops last year in Australia would not have had a large impact because they reduced global grain exports by just 4 percent and other exporters would have been able to offset those losses.

"Without the increase in biofuels, global wheat and maize stocks would not have declined appreciably and price increases due to other factors would have been moderate," he said.

Still, Mitchell's thinking is not far off that of colleagues at the International Monetary Fund, who recently concluded that a "significant part of the latest jump in food prices can be traced directly to biofuels policy."

Concerned that rising food prices have increased poverty and hunger, the report is part of a effort at the World Bank to find a more accurate picture of the role biofuels are playing in the rise of food prices.

It has also thrust the development agency, which considers itself a neutral voice on global issues, into an intensely political debate.

FUEL OR FOOD

The Renewable Fuels Association, a trade group for the ethanol industry, argues that it is a stretch to put 75 percent of the blame for rising food prices on biofuels.

National Biodiesel Board Chief Executive Joe Jobe said the addition of biofuels to U.S. energy supply is the only thing keeping prices from rising even more quickly.

"Credible fact-based research has demonstrated repeatedly that soaring petroleum costs are the main culprit behind higher food prices," Jobe said.

Kimberly Elliott, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Global Development, said the debate around biofuels should not be about numbers but should focus on the broader issue of whether current biofuels policies work or not.

"It doesn't really matter if biofuels' contribution to the food price crisis is large or small because promotion of the current generation of biofuels doesn't make any sense anyway," Elliot said.

"It is premised on energy security and mitigating global warming, and it's not achieving either of those things. Also, new scientific research on the global warming front suggests it is actually making things worse because of the land use changes," she added.

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Potatoes in Peru improving food security

from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Reporter: Pip Courtney
BRENDAN TREMBATH: As the world reels from rising rice, wheat and corn prices, one expert recommends the humble potato be taken more seriously.

A top potato scientist says the world food crisis can't be solved by rice and grains alone.

The United Nations has declared 2008 to be the International Year of the Potato.

Pip Courtney from the ABC TV show Landline has been in the great potato producing nation of Peru and she filed this report.

(Sound of llama bells ringing)

PIP COURTNEY: High up in the Andes mountains in Peru - the home of the potato, its harvest time.

Potatoes have been grown in the highlands for thousands of years, for the villagers here, here spuds are the key to survival.

VILLAGER (translated): We eat potatoes three times a day. It is the sustenance of each family.

PIP COURTNEY: Once a year the Aymara community gathers to harvest one very special potato paddock.

This year it contains 1,732 varieties of potato and they're destined for the world's biggest potato gene bank which is based in Lima.

The Aymara's head man told me the peasant farmers are enjoying their new role of gene conservationists.

AYMARA HEAD MAN (translated): We are really proud, and what we want is to extend the diversity to everybody and not lose the potatoes we have here.

PIP COURTNEY: Skyrocketing wheat, rice and corn prices have had a huge impact in Peru, where half the population lives below the poverty line.

Ismael Benavides is Peru's agriculture minister.

ISMAEL BENAVIDES: 95 per cent of our wheat is imported so the price of bread and pasta has doubled we eat a lot of chicken and chickens are fed mostly on corn and we import 60 per cent of our corn.

PIP COURTNEY: The governments responded by running an 'eat more potatoes' campaign, even pushing for bread to be made from 15 per cent potato flour.

ISMAEL BENAVIDES: And the consumption has actually gone up. It's over 10 per cent higher than a year ago.

PIP COURTNEY: The world's top potato scientist Pamela Anderson, says Peru's woken up to potatoes potential to feed the poor, she wants more countries to do the same.

PAMELA ANDERSON: Potato has literally saved populations in the past and we are quite confident that it will continue to save populations in the future and help us address the food security issue as we go into the next generations.

PIP COUTNEY: Pamela Anderson says food security can't be delivered by rice and wheat alone.

PAMELA ANDERSON: We are a grain centric and a rice centric world there is a very high reliance on the grains and still a belief that the grains alone are going to solve the world food issue.

With potatoes you produce more food nutrition with less energy in less time than any of our other staple food crops

PIP COURTNEY: Pamela Anderson says if potatoes are to play a bigger role in food security aid agencies and governments must throw more money at agricultural R and D.

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Food, cash aid help world's poor as prices soar

from Reuters, Africa

By Lesley Wroughton

WASHINGTON - In impoverished Haiti, the government and aid groups hand out lunches at schools in slums. In Brazil, mothers who regularly take their children to medical check-ups qualify for small cash payments.

In Mexico and Bangladesh, governments give millions of poor families cash or wheat and rice for sending their children to school and health clinics.

For more than a decade programs like these have been helping millions of the world's poor by ensuring children are educated and women have access to basic medical care.

Targeted social programs like these have been around for more than a decade but are particularly valuable now when millions of the world's poor are struggling to cope with soaring food and fuel prices.

Some programs, such as the ones in Haiti and Brazil, have been expanded to take into account rocketing prices.

Global development agencies are major supporters of the programs because they can help break the cycle of poverty. The World Bank, for example, approves $1.2 billion annually in loans for cash transfer programs in 12 countries.

Helena Ribe, sector manager for the World Bank's Human Development Network for Latin America, said the programs not only raise incomes for those below the poverty line, but also keep kids in school and help mothers have healthy children.

Ribe said the programs show impressive results not only in Mexico and Brazil, but also in poorer countries such as Honduras and Nicaragua. In Latin America, more than 100 million poor benefit from monthly or annual payments of somewhere between $10 to $70 from their governments.

"Many of these programs have been evaluated very carefully, so we know they deliver results and affect the poorest people," she said.

Ribe said the annual costs to the government of such cash transfers is small -- about 1 percent of gross domestic product -- when compared to the large benefits for helping the poor.

GLOBAL STRUGGLE

The World Bank has estimated that higher food and fuel prices are a daily struggle for more than 2 billion people and threaten to push some 100 million people into poverty.

Global prices of all major food commodities hit their highest level in 30 years this year and international agencies agree they are likely to stay high over the next 10 years.

The surge in costs has led to higher import bills and strained budgets for both poor countries and richer emerging nations.

The International Monetary Fund sees targeted cash and food programs as a "preferred" way to reach the poor and says such programs can also be linked to inflation so families are automatically compensated when prices rise.

For example, the IMF has suggested temporary subsidies on a few staple foods that are mostly consumed by the poor.

Making that type of targeting effective, however, requires thorough planning and management, both of which are lacking in most poor countries.

"The primary objective is to feed the poor and make sure people have enough food, but that confronts governments with difficult policy choices," said Mark Plant, deputy director in the IMF's Policy Development and Review Department.

"Many of these countries simply don't have the infrastructure in place to do good targeting and that complicates their tasks even more," he said. Without the capacity to target their aid effectively, Plant said they pursue more-generalized subsidies that are costly and less-effective.

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Oil, food price spikes may worsen global poverty: IMF

from the AFP via Google



WASHINGTON — Rocketing oil and food prices are being felt around the globe and the surging inflationary pressures could worsen poverty, the International Monetary Fund warned Tuesday.

A new IMF study, looking at the impact of soaring oil and food costs, said many poor and developing countries will likely have to adjust their economic policies in response to soaring commodity prices.

"Some countries are at a tipping point," cautioned IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

"If food prices rise further and oil prices stay the same, some governments will no longer be able to feed their people and at the same time maintain stability in their economies," Strauss-Kahn said.

The IMF chief called for a "broad cooperative approach" to help tackle higher oil and food prices, and said the multilateral lender and guardian of global financial stability stood ready to assist countries in need.

He said the international community would also have to play a key role in helping to lessen the impact of commodity price shocks which have triggered protests in some countries.

The IMF report showed that poorer countries are having to pay out billions of dollars more for imported oil and foodstuffs. Its findings were released as world oil prices continued to roil near record highs of over 142 dollars a barrel.

Higher energy and food costs are eating into cash-strapped countries budgets and could significantly dent their economic growth, Strauss-Kahn said.

Poverty campaigners are concerned that rising commodity costs could roll back advances made through anti-poverty campaigns in recent years, particularly because poorer families tend to spend much more of their household income on food.

The IMF report found that poor households are most affected by food price inflation and "warned that the share of undernourished (people) in developing countries could rise rapidly above the current 40 percent of total population."

Energy and food values are still rising and the IMF said its research suggests "the problem is worsening."

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UN Warns Global Food Crisis Will Push 100m People Into Poverty

from All Africa

BuaNews (Tshwane)

By Modern Bweema
Sharm-El-Sheikh

The United Nations (UN) has warned that the current global food crisis, compounded by a hike in fuel prices and climate change, will push more than 100 million people into poverty.

United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Asha Rose-Migiro said on Monday at the official opening of the 11th AU Heads of State and Government Summit that this development risked reversing the positive steps made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Dr Migiro, however, noted that many African countries had made tremendous progress towards the achievement of the MDGs.

She said well designed and properly financed programmes had helped reduce child mortality, improve water and sanitation and expanded primary education in some African countries.

"There are numerous other examples that prove that the ambitious MDGs can be achieved.

"The careful plans crafted by African governments need to be backed by adequate and predicable donor financing," Dr Migiro said.

She, however, noted that donors had not yet delivered on their pledges made three years ago at the annual summit of the Group of Eight (G8) most developed nations at Gleneagles, Scotland, to support African countries meet the MDGs.

She said inadequate donor financing and other constraints had made it difficult for African countries to reach some of the MDGs.

Support for Africa was not only a moral imperative but was also critical for global peace and security, she added.

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G8 leaders to set up task force on food crisis: report

from Maktoob Business

Leaders from the Group of Eight industrial powers will agree to establish a task force at their summit next month to tackle the world food crisis, a report said on Monday.

The group will aim to address the immediate problem of food shortages in poorer countries as well as address longer-term challenges such as boosting food production, the Yomiuri Shimbun said, citing unnamed government sources.

The working group is also expected to discuss removal of export restrictions and directing global food stockpiles to those most in need, the daily said.

The report came after UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he would press G8 leaders at their July summit in Japan to tackle the world food crisis, as well as climate change and the flagging fight against global poverty.

The G8 is made up of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.

G8 leaders are expected to issue a statement on the food crisis at the summit in the northern Japanese resort town of Toyako, senior Japanese official Masaharu Kohno has said.

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