UN Chief Says Global Food Crisis Needs Quick Response

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday that dealing with the current global food crisis is a fight the international community cannot afford to lose. The U.N. chief is attending a world food security summit at the Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome. For VOA, Sabina Castelfranco reports.
The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appealed to the international community to move ahead collectively and with a sense of urgency to combat world hunger and promote global good security.
"This is a fight we cannot afford to lose," Mr. Ban said. "The enemy is hunger. Hunger degrades everything we have been fighting for in recent years and decades. Recent riots and protests show that hunger and the threat of hunger breed unrest and instability. We are duty bound to act, to act now, and to act as one."
Ban Ki-Moon said $15 to $20 billion is needed each year to boost food production to combat hunger. He added that most of that money would have to come from concerned countries.
The U.N. chief is attending a world food security summit in Rome hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization. Over 4,000 representatives from more than 180 countries are attending the summit.
Delegates at the summit in Rome have been divided over the role bio-fuels is playing in driving up food prices to the point of provoking riots in some countries.
"I think that there is an urgent need to establish a greater degree of international consensus and agreed policy guidelines on bio-fuel production, which take full account of food security, income and energy needs at all levels of our countries," Mr. Ban said.
Meanwhile, the head of the U.N.'s World Food Program, Josette Sheeran, said an extra $1.2 billion in donated funds will provide food for 75 million people going hungry because of soaring food prices. Sheeran, who is also attending the Rome summit, said many people in poor countries simply cannot buy the food available in markets.

Human Rights:Food => END HUNGER - WALK THE WORLD 2008

11th MSC-IAP Meeting: Abdullah Wants IAP Members To Look Into Food Production

source: bernama via msc malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, May 17 (Bernama) -- Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi today urged the Malaysian International Advisory Panel (IAP) to consider the role of new technologies, innovation and applications in helping to increase food production and enhance the management of food and energy resources. "Given the current global economic scenario, with the world average food prices going up by 75 per cent since 2000, I feel it is perhaps the most opportune time to put Information Communication and Technology (ICT), agriculture and biotechnology to work to overcome some of the challenges that Malaysia and the rest of the world are currently facing," he said in his opening speech of the 11th Malaysia IAP Meeting held here. The prime minister said a flagship application which combined efforts in agriculture and biotechnology, along with advances in ICT, could be undertaken if there was enough interest.

"Perhaps, these could be the area of discussion and I invite IAP members to give their views on this," he said.

Abdullah said the Malaysian government will continue to build its strength by continuing to undertake sound economic policy management as well as diversifying the economic sector and our export destinations.

"Domestic demand constitutes about 87 per cent of total Gross Domestic Product (GDP), boding well as a cushion against the negative effects of an increasingly unstable global economy.

"My government is committed to moving the Malaysian economy up the value chain. We will also continue to implement growth-centered as well as people-centered programmes and initiatives under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP)," he said. Meanwhile, Abdullah said the country had achieved much on the ICT front as after 12 years, MSC Malaysia was now home to more than 2,000 companies including home grown companies and multinationals, of which about 100 were leading global companies. "In 2007, MSC-status companies' turnover was approximately RM13.6 billion - an increase of more than 25 per cent compared to 2002.

"MSC Malaysia-status companies are also exporting more with the export figure from 2007 reported to be RM4.9 billion, this represents an increase of more than 40 per cent compared to 2002," said prime minister.

Abdullah said about RM800 million was spent by these companies in Research and Development (R&D) last year, which was more than three times the amount spent in 2002. To date, a total of 2,178 intellectual properties (IPs) of various kinds had been registered, he added.

Food Watch: Sarawak primed to be country's top rice-producing state

sources: text - nstonline, ricemap - d.i.d sarawak

KUCHING: With a vast area suitable for padi planting, Sarawak would be the country's main rice producer in the near future, state Secretary Datuk Amar Wilson Baya Dandot said yesterday. He said this would help overcome the national rice shortage.

"Under the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (Score), food-based industries are the top industries prioritised by the government," he said at a public forum on "rising prices and the people's welfare: current measures and future steps", organised by the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (Isis).

Baya said the food-based industries included rice, palm oil, livestock, fisheries and aquaculture. "The state government will promote and develop these industries in a big way to meet the needs of both the local and export markets."

He also said a Halal Park would be built on a 10,000ha piece of land in Tanjung Manis in the Mukah Division. He said the federal government had identified Sarawak as one of the country's halal hubs under the Ninth Malaysia Plan. A vast stretch of land, from Tanjung Manis to Bakam in Miri Division, will have many development areas within Score.

Baya said the agriculture sector to be developed within Score would be the catalyst for modern farming in the state. "It will help the efforts to increase the production of food in terms of meat, fruits and vegetables. The efforts are quite relevant as we strive to reach self-sufficiency in food production."
He said Sarawak was feeling the effects of rising food prices brought about by rising fuel prices.
The Consumer Price Index jumped from 1.7 per cent last year to 2.8 per cent in the first quarter of this year.

Isis chairman and chief executive officer Datuk Seri Mohamed Jawhar Hassan said the soaring prices of food, if not contained, would have a serious effect on the people's well-being and the country.

In Asia, he said about one billion people were seriously affected by the increase in food prices. Worldwide, 33 countries were being threatened, socially and politically, by the food crisis due to many factors, including the rising price of oil.

He said there were people who predicted that the price of oil could reach US$200 per barrel (RM638), from the present US$125 per barrel.

The views at the forum would be submitted to the federal government, he added.

Malaysia to spend 1.472 billion ringgit to subsidise rice farmers this year

source: AFP via MSN Malaysia News
Malaysia will spend 1.472 billion ringgit (458 million dollars) this year to subsidise rice farmers and import more rice from Thailand to bolster its stockpile, the agriculture minister said Tuesday. Agriculture minister Mustapa Mohamed said the government would also spend an additional 254 million ringgit to boost local rice production, as the price of Asia's staple diet continued to soar. "We want to make sure that the interest of the low-income earners are protected and that is why the government is willing to accept a big loss as a result of the large subsidies we are giving," Mustapa told reporters. "We cannot afford to let down the poor in society who will be hit the hardest by the increase in rice prices," he added.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi late Monday announced the country would, for the first time, spend at least 725 million ringgit to subsidise foreign rice imports to keep retail prices of the staple affordable. He also said the price of two popular local rice types -- a higher quality and an average grade -- will be capped from June 1 to keep manufacturers from raising their prices further and burdening consumers. The minimum guaranteed market price has also been raised to benefit farmers who sell rice to encourage them to grow more of the crop. -- MORE

Measures to keep price of rice down KUALA LUMPUR: The government announced measures to hold down the price of rice yesterday, including securing supplies of price-controlled 15 per cent broken rice and setting price caps for two other grades of the grain. Full Story
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Thai sellers want us to pay more BANGKOK: The Malaysian government and Thai rice exporters are deadlocked over the "price tag" for new purchases, with the world's biggest rice exporter insisting on the current market level of about US$1,000 (RM3,197) a tonne. Full Story