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UN aid agency chiefs are holding a Food Crisis Summit in the Swiss capital Berne, in order to find new measures to tackle the global food crisis. Global rice prices are believed to have risen by ninety percent in the past one year. Food riots across the globe have focused attention on rising prices, with most of the countries promising aid to the struggling citizens of their respective countries. The Haitian Prime Minister was forced to step down from his post recently, owing to the grim situation of availability of food in the country.
The World Food Programme, in the short term, requires extra $755 million, as the original budget for the year 2008 is not sufficient to cover up for the rising food prices. The UN estimates that upto 100 million of the world’s poorest people require immediate aid due to soaring prices. The cost of staple diet items like rice, grain, oil have risen by more than 50 percent since last year. The bigger challenge is, however, in the long term, as to how to tackle climate change, how to promote sustainable agriculture and ensure sufficient productivity of food. World Bank President, Robert Zoellick and heads of twenty agencies are going to attend the two day summit on food crisis in Berne.
