IMF warns rising food prices raising risk of war

Channel NewsAsia 13 Apr 08;

WASHINGTON - Rising food prices could have terrible consequences for the world, including the risk of war, the IMF said Saturday, calling for action to keep inflation in check.

"Food prices, if they go on like they are doing today ... the consequences will be terrible," International Monetary Fund managing director Dominque Strauss-Kahn said.

"Hundreds of thousands of people will be starving ... (leading) to disruption of the economic environment," Strauss-Kahn told a news conference at the close of the IMF spring meeting here.

Development gains made in the past five or 10 years could be "totally destroyed," he said, warning that social unrest could even lead to war.

"As we know, learning from the past, those kind of questions sometimes end in war," he said. If the world wanted to avoid "these terrible consequences," then rising prices had to be tackled.

Skyrocketing prices on rice, wheat, corn and other staple foods like milk particularly hurt developing nations, where the bulk of income is spent on the bare necessities for survival.

Higher energy prices, too, are driving up the cost of food, as well as stoking broader inflation.

In recent months, rising food costs have lead to social unrest in several countries such as Haiti and Egypt. Thirty-seven countries currently face food crises, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization.

Escalating inflation is complicating the already complex challenges of a global financial crisis battering the world economy, Strauss-Kahn said.

The 185-nation IMF called for a strong front to put the reeling world economy back on track.

"The global crisis has to be addressed with a global view and by strengthening the role of multilateral institutions," Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, chair of the the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC), the IMF's top policy-making body, told reporters in a briefing.

In a statement, the IMF said that "policymakers should continue to respond to the challenge of dealing with the financial crisis and supporting activity, while making sure that inflation is kept under control."

The IMF stressed that "the challenges facing the world economy are of a global nature, requiring strong action and close cooperation among the membership."

Unlike the last IMF meeting in October, where internal reforms were high on the agenda, this time the multilateral institution faces a full-blown, and still unfolding, financial shock that began in August amid rising defaults on US high-risk sub-prime home loans.

Tasked with maintaining global financial stability, the IMF, whose own finances are strained, insists its expertise and global range make it a key player in resolving what Strauss-Kahn earlier called the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The IMF last week warned the global economy is slowing so rapidly it could slide effectively into recession this year and next.

IMF policymakers also welcomed moves by central banks to provide liquidity support to ease strains in the credit markets.

The US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and others have pumped hundreds of billions of dollars into the money markets that seized up in the spreading sub-prime contagion.

The IMF also applauded Financial Stability Forum policy recommendations adopted Friday by the Group of Seven industrialized countries in the hope of improving transparency and resiliency in the financial markets within 100 days.

Regarding internal reforms, the IMF said it hoped governors would soon approve key voting and financial measures approved by the executive board.

It said it looked forward to approval of a reform of voting rights, long demanded by developing countries, by April 28, and a new income model that includes the sale of 403 tonnes of gold to raise cash, by May 5. - AFP/ir

Rising food prices could result in 'mass starvation'
Straits Times 14 Apr 08;

Developing countries, especially in Africa, will suffer the worst, warns head of IMF
WASHINGTON - MASS starvation and malnutrition among children - with consequences for the rest of their lives - will result if global food prices continue their upward spiral.

This warning came from the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who added that people in developing countries, especially in Africa, will bear the brunt of the 'dire consequences from high food prices'.

His comments came as violence flared in Haiti, with mobs protesting against soaring food prices pulling a United Nations police officer from his car and shooting him execution-style.

Over the past few months, riots and demonstrations sparked by the cost of food have also broken out in Guinea, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Indonesia.

Mr Strauss-Khan was speaking on Saturday, ahead of yesterday's meeting of the IMF's sister institution, the World Bank, which was due to discuss a massive plan to reduce hunger announced earlier this month by bank president Robert Zoellick.

The IMF chief also warned richer countries that the problem of high food prices 'is not only a humanitarian question', as the developed world would also be affected by trade imbalances.

But he made it clear that it is the world's poor which will bear the brunt of the problem.

'Food prices, if they go on like they are doing today...the consequences will be terrible,' he said.

'Thousands, hundreds of thousands of people will be starving. Children will be suffering from malnutrition, with consequences for all their lives.'

He also said that development gains made in the past five or 10 years could be 'totally destroyed', and that social unrest could even lead to war.

'As we know, learning from the past, those kinds of questions sometimes end in war,' he said.

According to a World Bank policy note released last week, increases in global wheat prices reached 181 per cent over the 36 months leading up to February, while overall global food prices increased by 83 per cent.

Meanwhile, the global price of rice has roughly doubled in the last year.

Singapore shoppers are feeling the pinch too, with overall food prices rising by 6.7 per cent year on year, according to the Consumer Price Index for February.

Mr Zoellick last week said that global food stocks had fallen to a level that was bordering on an emergency because of strong food demand, dietary changes and the use of biofuels as an alternative energy source. Some biofuels such as palm oil are also foodstuffs.

Meanwhile, World Bank policymakers were yesterday set to discuss Mr Zoellick's proposed 'new deal' for global food policy.

He is urging countries to provide the minimum US$500 million (S$670 million) immediately sought by the World Food Programme to address the food crisis.

The World Bank plans to nearly double its lending for agriculture in Africa, to US$800 million.

Mr Zoellick also wants sovereign wealth funds to increase their investments in Africa among other measures to soften the impact of a slowing world economy on the most vulnerable countries.

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We must take stock when little things that rule world are lost

The Independent 13 Apr 08;

THERE are 6.5 billion people in the world today, three times as many as 50 years ago. There are undoubtedly three billion fewer insects, the forgotten creatures that maintain the fabric of life.

These include bees, butterflies, moths and all flying mites and invertebrates and sea creatures that inhabit earth and slime. Not many people, excepting scientists who watch and count, pay much attention.

Almost everybody is aware of the travails of the major star species such as polar bears, pandas and tigers. We are reminded on a daily basis of their endangerment. There was a scare about bees last year but honey is still in the supermarkets so the bee colony collapse is more or less old news.

There are more than 50 dead zones with little or no oxygen in the world's coastal areas, the biggest in the western hemisphere being from pollution in the Mississippi flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. In the Pacific and Far East, half the world's mangrove forests have been lost to coastal development and fish farming. Almost half of the land surface of the planet has been altered and we are wiping out species at 1,000 times the natural rate of evolution.

This could increase 10,000-fold and at this rate, one to two-thirds of all species of plants, animals, insects and other organisms will have gone by the end of the century, a loss on a scale not seen since the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

Almost daily we are being reminded of climate change on an extraordinary scale and the negative trend of the earth's ability to maintain the quality of human life.

Commercial interests on a gigantic scale are devastating the rain forests for hardwood and clearing areas for biofuel crops. With the addition of excessive fertiliser use, filling in wetlands and wanton burning of fossil fuel, 50 per cent of the earth's land surface has been transformed and the amount of nitrogen in the environment has doubled.

Many signals of the problems are obvious: toxic algal blooms, coral bleaching, disappearance of fish, bird and insect species and, last year, the honeybee collapse disorder in America and parts of Europe.

Without crop pollination by bees, harvests will fail. There is something very serious going on, scientists point out. Naturalist Roger Deakin says we should worry for the world if bees disappear.

Now is the time to take stock. Insects form the basis of the food chain, "the little things that rule the world" ,as the zoologist Edward O Wilson describes them. They have almost disappeared from the windscreens of our cars. We must consider what kind of world, or what remains of it, will be inherited by our grandchildren. We have been the caretakers but up to now we've been inattentive stewards.

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Delay in mass nesting of Orissa sea turtles

Mass nesting of turtles: Orissa writes to DRDO
The Hindu News 13 Apr 08;

Bhubaneswar (PTI): Worried over delay in annual mass nesting at Gahirmath beach in Orissa's Kendrapara district, the largest rookery of olive ridley sea turtles, the Orissa government has requested the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to put off the next test- firing of Agni-I slated for last week of April.

Wildlife experts and researchers on olive ridley turtles apprehend that test firing of Agni-I on March 23 could have been a major reason behind delay in begining of mass nesting of turtles, Chief Wildlife Warden B K Patnaik told PTI.

However, they were not absolutely sure about this, Patnaik added.

"We have already written a letter to the DRDO urging it to postpone its proposed test-firing of missiles during the crucial period of mass nesting of olive ridley turtles in Orissa coast," Patnaik said.

According to an understanding between the Orissa government and the DRDO, the latter had committed not to undertake any step which would adversly affect mass nesting of the rare turtles who come from far flung areas to lay eggs on Orissa coast, Patnaik said.

Though a large number of turtles had congregated at Gahirmatha beach, they refrained from mass nesting. "Turtles hesitant to lay eggs could be due to luminous lighting at Wheeler island in the sea which was barely 12 km from the eco-sensitive beach," said one of the turtle researchers in the wildlife wing.

Last year, though there was a small congregation of turtles at Gahirmatha beach, which is part of Bhitarkanika National Park, the nesting took place at appropriate time in the month of March, the researcher pointed out.

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Nature oasis flourishes in Belgium's coal belt

William Schomberg, Reuters 12 Apr 08;

GENK, Belgium (Reuters) - Fringed by dark hills of coal waste and long-shuttered collieries, Belgium's first national park might seem a humble contender for the role of global model for conservation and economic regeneration.

The pine woods and heather meadows of the Hoge Kempen park in northeastern Belgium sit on a small plateau above criss-crossing motorways and cooling towers in one of Europe's most crowded corners.

But conservationists say the park's founder broke new ground by convincing politicians, after years of lobbying, that his project should qualify for economic regeneration grants, and not just conservation funds which tend to be much smaller.

Ignace Schops, who dreamt up the park with friends over beers in 1997, estimates the 28 million euros ($44.4 million) granted by the regional Flemish government in 2002 was about three times the amount he got in conservation grants.

"That is extremely innovative and an example for the whole financing of protected areas around the world," said Tamas Marghescu, director of the European office of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Schops, the conservationist son of a miner, matched the government's money several times over with other sources of financing. He says eco-tourism has given a boost to a region scarred by the loss of its traditional mining industry.

"Sustainable tourism is a niche and when you are the best in that niche, it's a huge business," said Schops as he took in the view from a hilltop in the park during a spring snowstorm.

This week, Schops will be awarded one of the six annual Goldman Environmental Prizes for grassroots environmentalism.

The prestigious awards, created by the founder of a U.S. insurance company, are worth $150,000 each: previous winners have included Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai and executed Nigerian environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa.

Schops was honored for creating a new model for financing nature conservation.

The nearly 6,000-hectare (14,800-acre) park, where ramblers can stroll on paths beneath trilling skylarks or cycle on lanes winding through the woods, opened in 2006 and visitor centers located around its edge are still being completed.

At first, Schops faced serious opposition from local businesses which wanted to build factories on the largely publicly owned woods and meadows that lay next to the disused mines, a small oasis of untouched land in the industrial zone.

FREE PIES

Schops sensed he was winning the argument when a bakers' association, happy at the prospect of more tourists, awarded his team a month's supplies of free pies shortly after the park opened last year.

And now the park has repaid Schops' faith.

Last year, visitor numbers broke through the 400,000-a-year level, a feat originally only expected by 2011, with many tourists coming from over the nearby Dutch and German borders.

Originally, Schops forecast Hoge Kempen would earn local business 24.5 million euros ($38.9 million) a year through hotels, restaurants, bicycle rentals and other tourism revenues.

Those figures will probably now need to be raised.

Park officials say the project has created 400 jobs, including park staff and people hired by local hotels, restaurants and for other tourism-related business.

"It is a fantastic achievement to establish a national park in the midst of one of the most densely populated areas ... in the world," said the IUCN's Marghescu.

"Nature in this part of the world is scarce and every square meter of land has enormous economic value."

MODEL

The IUCN, which brings together government and non-government organizations, hopes to use Hoge Kempen as an example of how to set up new national parks to boost conservation and help slow species loss.

Hoge Kempen is home to 6,000 species of flora and fauna including endangered nightjar birds, smooth snakes, grasshoppers and several kinds of plants, Schops said.

Conservationists from Georgia, in the Caucasus, recently sought advice on how to protect their nature areas and the IUCN suggested Schops should train them.

"Why should Brazil, for example, have to do something for its rainforests if we don't take any responsibility for our own nature conservation?" Schops said. "There is lots of interest in our model. What we need now is more political interest."

And that is growing.

Mayors from towns close to the park now want the reserve expanded to their municipalities too, so they can also benefit from the growing number of visitors.

Local officials add they hope the park will push up property prices as people from outside seek second homes nearby.

Marghescu said persuading people that a park on their doorstep can be a money-maker will be key to efforts to preserve nature and biodiversity in the 21st century.

"In the developing world, you find that national parks burn. Once you integrate interests of local people, the fires stop."

Work continues to finish Hoge Kempen park. Companies are still digging for sand and gravel within its boundaries but are speeding up their departure plans and a neighboring industrial park will also be moved away in coming years.

On a railway line that once groaned under coal cargoes, old train carriages have been turned into sleeping quarters for eco-tourists.

Schops is also planning to build a carbon-neutral bungalow park close to Hoge Kempen to tap into what he sees as future demand for environmentally friendly breaks for city-dwellers.

"This is tourism of the future. There are 6 million people within an hour's drive of here, and that makes us an attractive investment," he said.

(Editing by Clar Ni Chonghaile)

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Minnows move mountains to win Goldman eco prize

Jeremy Lovell, Reuters 12 Apr 08;

LONDON (Reuters) - Six campaigners who took on governments and multi-national corporations from Russia to Ecuador and won have been rewarded with this year's Goldman Environmental Prizes.

The prize, dubbed the Nobel Prize for the environment and worth $150,000 to each of the six winners, is awarded to the individual deemed to have made the greatest contribution to the local environment -- often alone and against great odds.

Founded in 1990, a recent survey suggested that the work of the Goldman Prize recipients to date had benefited more than 100 million people worldwide. The awards will be presented at a ceremony in San Francisco on Monday.

This year's Africa winner is Feliciano dos Santos, a musician with polio who has used his band Massukos and personal drive to get cleaner water and better sanitation in some of the poorest parts of his native Mozambique.

"Feliciano dos Santos is an inspirational leader who is changing Mozambique. His message and actions are positive and people of all ages look up to him and want to change themselves and the world they live in," said Ned Breslin of Water for People, a non-governmental organization.

In Russia the prize goes to Marina Rikhvanova who is battling the Russian government in a bid to save Lake Baikal, one of the world's oldest lakes, from potential destruction from waste from a planned uranium enrichment plant nearby.

This at a time when the world is increasingly turning its attention to the possible role of nuclear power in combating the climate crisis.

In Europe, Belgian campaigner Ignace Schops is rewarded for raising $90 million to create the country's first National Park out of a densely-populated industrial wasteland.

His success has acted as a catalyst for others who want to copy his model to create green spaces elsewhere, the Goldman committee said.

Rosa Ramos of Puerto Rico is recognized for persuading the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to use funds raised from fining polluters to create the Las Cucharillas Marsh Nature Reserve, providing habitat for many aquatic birds.

In Mexico the prize goes to Jesus Leon Santos who heads a local land reclamation group battling rampant soil erosion in the Mixteca region of Oaxaca.

In Latin America, the prize is jointly awarded to Pablo Fajardo and Luis Yanza. They are battling oil giant Texaco -- taken over by Chevron in 2001 -- to clean up and pay damages for the millions of gallons crude oil and toxic wastewater dumped in the Ecuadorian Amazon in the 1970s and 80s.

(Editing by Jon Boyle)

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South China Sea headed for troubled waters: marine experts

Frank Zeller, Yahoo News 12 Apr 08;

Polluted, crossed by busy shipping lanes, and disputed by many countries, the South China Sea has taken an environmental battering that threatens future food supplies, marine scientists have warned.

In a decade the sea -- at the heart of a densely populated and rapidly industrialising region -- has lost 16 percent of its coral reefs and coastal mangroves and 30 percent of its sea grass, says the United Nations.

The exploitation of its fisheries, both legal and illegal, by family boats and industrial deep sea trawlers now threatens to deplete fish stocks that millions of people rely on, a Hanoi conference heard last week.

"The key issues on a basin scale are habitat degradation and loss, overfishing and land-based pollution," said Vo Si Tuan, who served as Vietnam representative to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) South China Sea Project.

"There are many, many problems, but these are the biggest."

The South China Sea is ringed by China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, with about 350 million people living along its coastal areas.

"There are large populations heavily dependent, directly and indirectly, on fishing, in one of the world's most biodiverse marine areas," said Keith Symington, a marine specialist with the World Wide Fund for Nature.

"The international trends are more pronounced in the South China Sea.

"Boats have to go further and fish longer to catch the same amount of fish and they are catching smaller fish," said Symington, speaking to AFP at the fourth Global Conference on Oceans, Coasts and Islands.

"There are a lot of illegal or unreported catches, there are fishing boats flying flags of convenience, there are loopholes."

The UN has highlighted the damage done to coral reefs, seagrass, mangroves and wetlands that are crucial for biodiversity and fish breeding.

Vietnam's Halong Bay, a world heritage-listed island scape, is a case in point, said Michael Hayes, an expert on tourism in protected marine areas.

"There are 138 coral species in Halong Bay, but most of the reefs are being destroyed by heavy sedimentation," he said.

Erosion from deforestation along the Red River is pouring silt into the bay, where shrimp farms and land reclamation have destroyed mangroves and heavy shipping, coal mining and tourism are polluting the waters.

"There is more and more pressure on the South China Sea, from fisheries but also from other exploitation like oil and gas and ballast waters from ships that introduce invasive species," he said.

Vietnam, aiming to protect its coastal areas, plans to send fewer and larger fishing boats deeper into the South China Sea, said Nguyen Chu Hoi, director of the Vietnam Institute of Fisheries Economics and Planning.

The communist government plans to declare 15 marine protected areas this year, he said, and to reduce its fleet of 90,000 mostly family-run boats by 30 percent over five years while encouraging more off-shore fishing.

The ships may be heading into troubled waters, and not just during the annual typhoon season that is set to worsen with climate change.

Fishing has already led to clashes on the high seas, with Chinese vessels and the Indonesian coastguard firing at Vietnamese ships.

Managing the South China Sea is complicated by the fact that at its heart lie the Spratly islands, which are claimed in full or in part by Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

"The South China Sea is a highly contested area," said Robert Jara of the Philippines' environment and natural resources department.

"One of the basic approaches now is putting aside the claims while we address the environment and the resource degradation of the South China Sea.

"If you address the claims before addressing the environment, at the end of the day everybody loses out."

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Biofuel's impact on food crops under study at FAO meeting

Aldo Gamboa, Yahoo News 13 Apr 08;

Strategies to develop biofuel production without sacrificing food supplies will be one of the headline issues to be tackled at a Latin America conference by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization next week in Brasilia.

FAO studies show demand, and therefore prices, for food is skyrocketing in developing countries, while interest also is growing in transforming arable land into profitable biofuel terrain.

Brazil has a leading role in the debate, being both a major agricultural and biofuel exporter.

The FAO's representative for Latin America and the Caribbean, Jose Graziano, himself a Brazilian, says that even though "there are no absolute truths in terms of biofuel, there is a positive or negative effect on food security and the environment, depending on how it is developed."

Right now, he says, the food sector "is under speculative attack," made vulnerable by low stocks and demand that has made it more precious.

Some countries, including Brazil, are benefiting from the extra money flowing into their coffers from exports.

But the FAO sees that scenario as being volatile, according to a report on biofuel production and food security to be presented at the conference.

The report details the pros and cons of using crops to make fuel, along with the scale of exchanges, the systems used and the structure of markets dealing with the output.

It is not all negative. The report also notes that, if properly applied, biofuel programs can bring benefits to family-run farms across Latin America.

Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, on a trip to the Netherlands, denied there was a link between rising food prices and biofuels, and called on "the responsibility of the developed countries to reduce the distortions that affect the developing countries" because of farm subsidies.

The FAO conference is to be attended by ministers and senior government officials from 33 countries.

The head of the UN food agency, Jacques Diouf, on Friday told a news conference in Rome that soaring cereal prices are a growing threat to world peace and security and to the human rights of developing countries facing food crises.

At least five people have died in violent protests against high food and fuel prices in Haiti's capital, while similar disturbances have rocked Egypt, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Ethiopia, Madagascar, the Philippines, Indonesia and other countries in the past month.

In Pakistan and Thailand, army troops have been deployed to avoid the seizure of food from fields and warehouses.

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Best of our wild blogs: 13 Apr 08

The Return of Mr Stonefish
at the Kusu Island Reefwalk on the blue water volunteers blog

Chek Jawa with TeamSeagrass
a new site set up for a rare seagrass on the wildfilms blog, more encounters on the nature scouter blog and ramblings of a peculiar nature and teamseagrass blog and budak blog

Low hanging flowers of Chek Jawa
some pretty flowers on the wildfilms blog

Updates on Chek Jawa study
Grain size distribution analysis at Chek Jawa on the CJ project blog

Rare coastal plants discovered on Ubin
on the flying fish friends blog

Changi intertidal tour
with sighting of green knobbly sea star on the manta blog

Chek Jawa walk
on the tidechaser blog

What should you do when you come across a displaced chick?
Pick it up? Leave it alone? Or what? discussed on the bird ecology blog

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I use the bike to go to work: MiG Ayesa in Singapore

He cycles to work to recycle Queen's hits
Aw Cheng Wei, Straits Times 13 Apr 08;

I Want To Break Free.

That's a mega hit from British rockers Queen, recycled in the musical We Will Rock You, now playing at the Esplanade.

And MiG Ayesa, who plays the lead in the show, has taken the concept of freedom further by buying a $60 bicycle to take him where his heart desires.

'We are not that far from places around here, so I use the bike to go to work,' the Australian performer said. The cast live in serviced apartments in Bencoolen.

At least 13 other cast members have also bought bikes and have pedalled to places like Little India, Fort Canning Park and Changi Airport. 'It's safe to bike here. Once, I cycled to Sentosa with my wife,' said Ayesa, 38, who found fame as one of the three finalists in TV reality show Rockstar: INXS.

The aim of that show was to find a singer for Australian rock band INXS after vocalist Michael Hutchence committed suicide.

Ayesa, who recently released a self-titled album, usually walks to his destinations if he isn't cycling.

'Singapore is like the Monte Carlo of Asia. It's very affluent...

'But you don't have to spend a lot to have a really good time,' said the man who added that he will 'definitely return here'.

The bicycles will be donated to charity on April 27 when the musical ends its run.

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Jurong could be next suburban hot spot

Swanky new facilities at Jurong Lake District will turn area into top commercial hub
Jessica Cheam, Straits Times 13 Apr 08;

The property market might have slowed in recent months, but for home hunters seeking good-value, long-term investments, there is one suburban estate screaming for attention: Jurong.

The Housing Board (HDB) town in the western region of Singapore might conjure up images of sprawling factories and sleepy suburbia, but in 10 to 15 years' time, it will undergo a transformation that could propel the estate to the forefront of the suburban property market, say industry experts.

Last week, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan unveiled an ambitious blueprint to transform Jurong into Singapore's only lakeside destination: the Jurong Lake District.

It is set to become the largest commercial hub outside the Central Business District (CBD) - almost three times the size of Tampines, now Singapore's biggest suburban commercial hub.

Jurong's rejuvenation involves the building of new waterways, 1,000 private homes and 2,800 hotel rooms, as well as the addition of 500,000 sq m of office space and 250,000 of retail space.

The Jurong Lake District, which at 360ha will rival Marina Bay in size, consists of two precincts: Jurong Gateway and Lakeside.

The 70ha Jurong Gateway will boast swanky new high-rise offices, condos and entertainment facilities, all within walking distance of the Jurong East MRT station.

Lakeside is being marketed as a unique lakeside destination that will offer water activities and many tourist attractions, including a first-class science centre. It will be located around the Chinese Garden and Lakeside MRT stations, and will target young families.

In the short term, market watchers say Jurong is unlikely to see 'exceptional boosts to prices', given the current lacklustre market sentiment.

'Plans are still at a very early stage, and it's difficult to predict exact figures for future increases in property values when many factors are at play,' said Colliers International's director of research and consultancy, Ms Tay Huey Ying. But in the long term, property prices in Jurong could match those in established suburban towns such as Bishan and Ang Mo Kio, she added.

With or without the newly announced plans, private condos in Jurong - such as Parc Vista, Parc Oasis, The Mayfair and The Lakeshore - have seen price increases of 50 to 60 per cent since 2005.

The home investor can get attractive rental yields at some properties such as those within walking distance of MRT stations.

For example, units at The Mayfair, completed in 2000, and Parc Oasis, completed in 1994, sold for a median price of $560 per sq ft (psf) between the middle of last year and March this year.

Both developments are near the Chinese Garden MRT station.

With monthly rentals averaging $2.70 psf, owners enjoy rental yields of 5 per cent, said Ms Tay.

Units at newer condos near the Lakeside MRT station such as The Lakeshore, completed last year, went for a median price of $730 psf. They commanded monthly rents of $4 psf, providing an attractive average yield of 5.8 per cent.

The director of marketing and business development at Savills Singapore, Mr Ku Swee Yong, noted that prices at The Lakeshore jumped 40 per cent to around $803 psf on average in the first quarter of this year compared with the first quarter of last year - driven no doubt by the buoyant market last year.

In view of rising inflation and declining interest rates, Ms Tay said properties in the Jurong Lake District area present 'relatively attractive investments', as they cater to a niche leasing market, made up of foreign white-collar professionals who work at the International Business Park.

Other choices for investors include private apartments such as the former Housing and Urban Development Company estate Ivory Heights - just a stone's throw from the Jurong East MRT station - and executive condos such as Westmere and Summervale.

The huge catchment of standard HDB homes surrounding the district adds to the broad range of properties available.

Prices of HDB homes at Jurong East have also risen, with executive units selling for a median price of $490,000 in the fourth quarter of last year, up from $468,000 in the previous quarter.

PropNex chief executive Mohamed Ismail said activity in the HDB segment, unlike that in the high-end residential market, is still very healthy.

Jurong East public flats have strong potential upside. For instance, a five-room flat in Jurong East now costs, on average, $90,000 less than one in Bishan and $135,000 less than one in Toa Payoh.

'I expect prices for public housing to increase 5 to 10 per cent in the next two years,' said Mr Ismail.

Leaning on the side of caution, the director of consultancy and research at Knight Frank, Mr Nicholas Mak, said property values will start to appreciate only when the Lake District plans materialise, which could take many years.

Government land is the most likely to go up in value, he said. If plot ratios go up, prices will also increase.

Because little of the land in the precinct is freehold, Mr Mak thinks it is unlikely that high-end private homes will be built in the area.

One likely investor, Mr Ivan Koh, 27, who works in a law firm, said the area has now emerged at the 'top of the list' for his property hunting. 'There are still other factors to consider,' he said. 'But at least, there is some security if I choose to invest in a home in Jurong, as I know there are big redevelopment plans there.'

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Oh for a taste of Pulau Ubin

Sandra Leong, Straits Times 13 Apr 08;

Two seafood eateries here are cashing in on the allure of the Pulau Ubin name while hoping to carry on the tradition of island-style food

The busy Sin Ming industrial estate, dotted with greasy car workshops, is the last place you would expect to find a slice of kampung life like that on the island of Pulau Ubin.

Yet such laidback nostalgia can be found at Block 27, which houses the New Ubin Seafood Restaurant.

Diners perch on rustic wooden furniture, lapping up old-style dishes such as Ubin fried rice - blackened with healthy amounts of soya sauce - and steamed squid dipped in vinegar.

The restaurant is the latest incarnation of the old Ubin Seafood Restaurant, formerly at Sixth Avenue, Bukit Timah.

And yes, it's also the same restaurant of Ubin fame that has, over the last 10 years, popped up in Tanglin Halt, Pasir Panjang Village, Joo Chiat Village, Keppel Marina and Marina Country Club.

The frequent shifting may have confused foodies, many of whom wondered if each new establishment was related to the previous one. But New Ubin's manager Pang Seng Meng, 53, says: 'We are still the original. The connecting thread between all the restaurants is the traditional Ubin style of cooking.'

The north-eastern island of Pulau Ubin, accessible via a 10-minute bumboat ride from Changi Point, is well known as a relaxing getaway destination.

But to some in the restaurant trade here, it appears the name 'Ubin' is also synonymous with sumptuous seafood fare.

Apart from New Ubin, which re-opened in Sin Ming last September, an Ubin First Stop Restaurant Changi is also slated to open at Changi Village next month.

New Ubin is now owned by businesswoman Michelle Nicholas, 48, who used to run a spa next to the Sixth Avenue restaurant.

But it was founded in the mid-1980s under the name Pulau Ubin Seafood by Mr Leong Kee Keng, who served water-skiiers and boaters from his family kitchen on the island's north shore.

In the early 1990s, Mr Leong passed the recipes to his nephew, Mr Chua Ek Kuang, who set up a stall at Tanglin Halt.

Reminiscing about the early days, Mr Leong, 56, says in Mandarin: 'Most of the seafood - fish, prawns, crabs - were caught fresh from Ubin or other islands such as Tekong.'

The contractor is still a regular patron of the restaurant, and even did the renovations for its Sin Ming premises.

From 1997 to 1998, Ubin Seafood continued to operate from Pasir Panjang Village under Mr Chua. Over the next five years, it moved to Joo Chiat Village then Keppel Marina.

In 2004, he set up shop at Marina Country Club and, a year later, started a second branch at Sixth Avenue. By this time, he had roped in three other shareholders: Ms Nicholas, Mr Paul Sim and Mr Peter Ho.

Last year, the group got into a disagreement because the Marina Country Club restaurant was under-performing, says manager Mr Pang. It eventually closed in March last year.

Two months later, the Bukit Timah outlet shut down, too.

Ms Nicholas then set up New Ubin on her own four months later. Though she has never stepped foot onto Ubin, she says: 'I felt the Ubin tradition needed to be carried on. Also, all the kitchen staff needed a job.'

Both she and Mr Pang have since lost contact with Mr Chua but insist the current cooks remain the same as those at the Bukit Timah outlet, and were trained by him.

Says Mr Pang: 'About 50 per cent of people who come here have frequented the other Ubin outlets at some time or other.'

One of them, finance director Sam Yeo, 62, has been a fan since the restaurant's humble beginnings in Ubin.

'After water-skiing every weekend, I used to look forward to having a pint of beer, chilli crab, sotong and mee goreng. Those were the good old days.'

Also cashing in on the allure of the Ubin name is Mr Alan Tan, 55, who owns Ubin First Stop Restaurant on the island and the upcoming Ubin First Stop Restaurant Changi.

The original Ubin First Stop Restaurant, which he set up in 1990, is close to the Ubin boat jetty in a historic building formerly used as an opium den, prison and clinic.

Interestingly, Mr Tan - who was born on the mainland but visited his relatives on Ubin regularly as a child - claims his business is registered under the name Pulau Ubin Seafood Restaurant.

This is almost identical to what New Ubin Seafood was previously known as under Mr Leong, who never registered his makeshift operation.

'We are the true Pulau Ubin Seafood,' says Mr Tan with a laugh.

But he changed the name on his signboard to Ubin First Stop for 'fengshui reasons'. The name 'Pulau Ubin' in Mandarin is 'wu ming dao', which sounds inauspicious because the word 'dao' means to fall.

Apart from standard seafood favourites such as pepper crab and fried baby squid, his menu also boasts 'Ubin specialities' such as 'leather jacket' - small fish that are caught around the island.

Mr Tan decided to set up a mainland branch when some of his regulars began complaining that it was a hassle to travel to Ubin every time they needed a seafood fix.

He knows of New Ubin, adding that 'many customers go to them thinking it belongs to me'.

But he says: 'Their food is different from mine.'

Conversely, New Ubin's Mr Pang says he has never heard of Ubin First Stop. But he says: 'The more the Ubin name becomes well known, the better for us.'

Do you have any fond memories of food and fun on Pulau Ubin? Tell us about it by e-mailing suntimes@sph.com.sg

Ubin-type fare
Straits Times 13 Apr 08;

Apart from the usual seafood favourites such as chilli and pepper crab and fried baby squid, also check out these 'Ubin-style' dishes offered at the two restaurants:

NEW UBIN SEAFOOD RESTARAUNT

Traditional Ubin fried rice, which is black in colour, and Teochew-style steamed squid served with vinegar.

Block 27 Sin Ming Road, tel: 6466-9558


UBIN FIRST STOP RESTAURANT

Owner Alan Tan claims that most of his seafood is as fresh as you can get because it is caught from around Pulau Ubin. Marine morsels include 'leather jacket' fish, mud and flower crabs, mussels, gong gong and prawns.

42 Pulau Ubin, tel: 6543-2489. Ubin First Stop Restaurant Changi will open early next month

Joo Chiat gets a taste of Ubin
The Pulau Ubin legacy continues with a third restaurant, simply called Ubin, opening its doors last week
Sandra Leong, Straits Times 20 Apr 08;

The Pulau Ubin legacy - that of good, kampung-style seafood by the beach - is continuing yet, this time in Joo Chiat.

Last week, LifeStyle reported on two seafood eateries here hawking Ubin-style cooking: New Ubin Seafood in Sin Ming and Ubin First Stop Restaurant Changi, which opens at Changi Village next month.

Now a third restaurant, simply called Ubin, opened its doors along Joo Chiat Road last week.

It is owned by Mr Chua Che Kuang, 43, one of the former owners of New Ubin Seafood. Known as 'Kuang' to many diners, he is from the family that first ran the business - then called Ubin Seafood - from their own kitchen on the north shore of the sleepy north-eastern island.

Later, between 1993 and last year, he moved the restaurant to several locations on the mainland, including Tanglin Halt, Keppel Marina and Sixth Avenue. But it eventually folded when the partnership between him and his shareholders - Ms Michelle Nicholas, Mr Paul Sim and Mr Peter Ho - fell apart in September last year.

Ms Nicholas is now the sole owner of New Ubin, where the cooks were all trained by Mr Chua.

After LifeStyle's story, readers wrote in to say that Mr Chua, a self-professed 'kampung boy' who was born on Ubin, had started a new venture in Joo Chiat.

The 3,000 sq ft Ubin is housed in a conservation shophouse formerly used by a church. Photographs of the original restaurant on Ubin line the walls while the mostly dark wood decor exudes rustic charm.

It opened for business on April 9 but the signboards were only put up last Saturday, says Mr Chua. He fronts the business but has two other partners.

He says he spent the past six months 'taking a break' to spend time with his wife and three daughters.

'Working in the food and beverage industry for so many years, I didn't get to see them often. It was a nice break,' he says.

But regular customers who missed his food pestered him to get back into the game.

Says the soft-spoken man: 'They would keep calling and asking me when I was going to open my own restaurant.'

Among his regular clients, he claims, are many famous names such as Hong Kong actresses Carina Lau, Michelle Yeoh and big-name politicians and businessmen.

When he finally decided to make his comeback, it took about two months to find the ideal location. Eventually, he was won over by the 'traditional and old-world' surroundings of Joo Chiat, which has many shophouses.

On the menu are many old-time favourites such as chilli crab, garlic prawns and fried rice with dark sauce. True to the restaurant's family-style beginnings, Mr Chua's parents and brother now help out in the kitchen.

So far, several loyal customers have already re-discovered the restaurant. One of them, Briton Ali Tasker, used to frequent its Ubin premises when she went boating from Changi Sailing Club.

Making sure to keep in touch with Mr Chua each time he relocated, she dined at the new Ubin on its second day of business.

Says the owner of a design company who has been in Singapore for 18 years: 'If I could turn back the clock and have the restaurant still on Ubin, that would be fantastic. But this still reminds me of the good ol' days on Ubin, of family tradition and seafood. Newer restaurants don't have that charm and allure.'

If there is rivalry between Mr Chua and the owners of New Ubin, both parties are keeping mum about it.

Asked whether he is concerned about competition, Mr Chua says: 'Customers who see my face here, taste my food, will know that I'm the one who has been cooking for years.'

New Ubin's manager Pang Seng Meng, 53, says: 'I wish Kuang all the best in what he's doing. The more he improves the food standards in Singapore, the better.'

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GM food concerns - more than just 'great din'

Letter from Richard Seah Siew Sai, Straits Times 13 Apr 08;

In his commentary, 'When everything under the sun costs more...' (The Sunday Times, April6), deputy editor Warren Fernandez dismissed concerns about genetically modified (GM) foods without delving deeper into the subject.

These concerns are being expressed by, among others, some very respected scientists, not just by people 'generating a great din, but containing much less substance'.

Mr Fernandez credits the green revolution of the 1960s with enhancing crop yields. While the revolution did increase rice yields, it also led to pesticide poisoning of streams, rivers and coastal regions. It killed marine life and wildlife, and also exposed farmers - and consumers - to toxic pesticides.

Technological innovation is not the only way to increase food production. When the United States imposed a trade embargo on Cuba in the late 1980s, the country could no longer import farming chemicals and was forced to revert to traditional farming.

Within a decade, Cuba solved its food problem - without the cost and toxic pollution associated with chemical farming.

A 23-year study by the Rodale Institute found that 'alternative' farms (such as organic and traditional) are, in the long term, just as productive as, or even more productive than, green revolution farms.

Moreover, promoters of GM foods are not altruistic individuals out to solve world hunger. Some GM technology is, in fact, geared towards increasing crop resistance to pesticides and its effect has been to reduce, not raise, food production.

Mr Fernandez offered a good suggestion to reduce waste.

Here are two more ways:

# Eat unpolished brown rice. When rice is polished, about 10 per cent of its bulk and perhaps 90 per cent of its nutrition are wasted. Asia is estimated to generate 50million tonnes of rice waste each year through polishing.

# Eat less meat. It takes about 14kg of grain to produce 1kg of meat. If the world were to reduce its meat intake by just 10 or 20 per cent, there will be a lot more grain available for feeding humans.

Finally, I refer to Mr Fernandez's suggestion to eat potatoes instead of rice. Despite the rise in the price of rice from $7 a bag to over $10, the fact remains that $10 worth of rice can feed a lot more people, for a much longer time, than $10 worth of potatoes.

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Financing crucial to next climate change pact: UN

Louise Egan, Reuters 12 Apr 08;

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The global fight against climate change after the Kyoto pact expires will fail unless rich countries can come up with creative ways to finance clean development by poorer nations, a UN official said on Saturday.

"We are not going to see that major developing country engagement unless significant financial resources and technology flows begin to be mobilized," Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said in a media briefing.

De Boer and Katherine Sierra, World Bank Vice President for Sustainable Development, said they were studying a long list of financing schemes and proposals and were hopeful of meeting an end-2009 deadline.

But they were acutely aware of critics who have expressed fears the World Bank will "hijack" billions of dollars of development aid to tackle climate change.

"The overriding concern of developing countries is economic growth and poverty eradication and you cannot expect developing countries to engage on the question of climate change and harm those overriding objectives," De Boer said.

"At the heart of this is intelligent financial engineering," he said.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick said in a speech on Thursday that "addressing climate change won't work if it is simply seen as a rich man's club."

The first formal talks to draw up a replacement to the Kyoto climate change pact, which ends in 2012, took place in Bangkok earlier this month with plans for another seven rounds of negotiations culminating in Copenhagen at the end of 2009.

U.N. climate experts want the new treaty to go beyond Kyoto by getting all countries to agree to curbs on emissions of the greenhouse gases that are fueling global warming.

Under Kyoto, only 37 rich nations are bound to cut emissions by an average of five percent from 1990 levels by 2012.

But developing countries want firm commitments of aid to meet the new targets that will eventually be set out.

The international carbon market is one source of funding but it is not enough, said De Boer who said he was very interested in a German proposal to auction emission rights and use the proceeds for international aid.

"That is a very interesting way of mobilizing new financial resources that are not related to official development assistance," he said.

The World Bank is developing a new strategy on climate change that includes embedding climate change into its existing programs to help countries boost their economies and combat poverty, said Sierra.

She said the bank would meet with donors over the next several days to discuss its proposals, including a $5-10 billion Clean Technology Fund, a $500 million "adaptation" fund and possibly a third fund dealing with forestry.

Zoellick said the needs of developing nations in climate change will be the subject of a Sunday meeting of World Bank officials and ministers from rich and poor countries.

(Reporting by Louise Egan, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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The other global crisis: rush to biofuels is driving up price of food

Paul Vallely, The Independent 12 Apr 08;

The world's most powerful finance ministers and central bankers are meeting in Washington tomorrow; but as they preoccupy themselves with the global credit crunch, another crisis, far more grave, is facing the world's poorest people.

A dramatic rise in the worldwide cost of food is provoking riots throughout the Third World where millions more of the world's most vulnerable people are facing starvation as food shortages grow and cereal prices soar. It threatens to become the biggest crisis of the 21st century.

This week crowds of hungry demonstrators in Haiti stormed the presidential palace in the capital, Port-au-Prince, in protests over food prices. And a crisis gripped the Philippines as massive queues formed to buy rice from government stocks.

There have been riots in Niger, Senegal, Cameroon and Burkina Faso and protests in Mauritania, Ivory Coast, Egypt and Morocco. Mexico has had "tortilla riots" and, in Yemen, children have marched to draw attention to their hunger.

The global price of wheat has risen by 130 per cent in the past year. Rice has rocketed by 74 per cent in the same period. It went up by more than 10 per cent in a single day last Friday – to an all-time high as African and Asian importers competed for the diminishing supply on international markets in an attempt to head off the mounting social unrest. The International Rice Research Institute warned yesterday that prices will keep going up.

The buffers stocks of staple foods that governments once held are being steadily exhausted.

Rising prices have triggered a food crisis in 36 countries, says the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation. The hike in prices means the World Food Programme is cutting food handout rations to some 73 million people in 78 countries. The threat of malnutrition on a massive scale is looming.

The impact is beginning to be felt in the rich world, too. More expensive wheat has caused large rises in the cost of pasta and bread in Italy where consumer groups staged a one-day strike that brought pasta consumption down 5 per cent. The price of miso, a fermented rice and barley mixture, is up in Japan. France and Australia have launched national inquiries into rising food prices and are pressing food producers and supermarkets to absorb price rises. In Britain, the price of bread is rising in line with the cost of wheat.

Governments have begun to negotiate secretive barter arrangements as the price of agricultural commodities leap to record highs. Ukraine and Libya are close to a deal on wheat. Egypt and Syria have signed a rice-for-wheat swap. The Philippines has just failed in a rice deal with Vietnam.

All across the world, cereals, meat, eggs and dairy products are becoming dearer. "Food prices are now rising at rates that few of us can ever have seen before in our lifetimes," said John Powell of the World Food Programme. Prices are likely to remain high for at least 10 years, the Food and Agriculture Organisation is projecting.

A complex interaction of factors has provoked the panic among dealers in international food markets.

Diets are changing radically in nations such as China, India, Brazil and Russia, where economic growth has boosted meat consumption. In China, it is up by 150 per cent since 1980. In India, it has risen by 40 per cent in the past 15 years. The demand for meat from across all developing countries has doubled since 1980.

Because cattle and chickens are fed on corn – it takes 8kg of grain to produce 1kg of beef – the price has risen.

The new market for biofuels has raised grain prices. Corn is being used to produce energy and the market is anticipating hugely increased production in the coming decade. George Bush wants 15 per cent of American cars to run on biofuels by 2017, which will mean trebling maize production. Europe has a set a transport fuels target of 5.75 per cent from biofuels by 2010. As a result, the price of corn has begun to track that of oil quite closely.

The soaring cost of oil, which last week topped $105 (£53) a barrel for the first time, has another impact. It increases the price of fertiliser, and also the costs of food processing and transport.

Climate change is taking its toll. Droughts and floods are affecting harvests.

Floods in central China this year displaced millions of people and devastated rice and corn crops. Overall China's grain harvest has fallen by 10 per cent over the past seven years. Last year, Australia experienced its worst drought for more than a century, causing the wheat harvest to fall by 60 per cent. The UK wheat harvest is expected to be 10 per cent down this year, partly because of the flooding.

Worldwide, an area of fertile soil the size of Ukraine is lost every year because of drought, deforestation and climate instability.

There is also increasing demand from a rising world population which is expected to grow from 6.2 billion today to 9.5 billion by 2050. The World Bank predicts global demand for food will double by 2030.

Government policies do not help: the rich world subsidises agriculture not to feed the world but to enrich its farmers.

There is an increasing recognition of the gravity of all of this among the leaders of the industrialised world. On Thursday, Gordon Brown called on the Japanese Prime Minister, Yasuo Fukuda, the current chairman of the G8, to devise an international plan to deal with rising food prices with the World Bank, the IMF and the UN.

There is increasing concern about the rush to biofuels. Britain's new chief scientist, Professor John Beddington, has said cutting down rainforest to produce biofuel crops was "profoundly stupid". It was, he said, "very hard to imagine how we can see a world growing enough crops to produce renewable energy and, at the same time, meet the enormous increase in the demand for food".

Lennart Båge, the president of the UN's International Fund for Agricultural Development, suggested that those opposed to GM crops should take another look at the productivity gains they can unleash and bring changes as massive as the "green revolution" of the 1960s, when crop yields in India and other developing nations jumped because of of better seeds, fertilisers and improved irrigation.

That change brought down food prices, freeing millions from hunger. If world leaders cannot come up with something similar again, the food riots could spread across the globe.

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Poorest countries’ cereal bill continues to soar, governments try to limit impact

Forecast growth in 2008 cereal production could ease tight global supply
FAO website 11 Apr 08;

11 April 2008, Rome – The cereal import bill of the world’s poorest countries is forecast to rise by 56 percent in 2007/2008. This comes after a significant increase of 37 percent in 2006/2007, FAO said today.

For low-income food-deficit countries in Africa, the cereal bill is projected to increase by 74 percent, according to the UN agency’s latest Crop Prospects and Food Situation report. The increase is due to the sharp rise in international cereal prices, freight rates and oil prices.

International cereal prices have continued to rise sharply over the past two months, reflecting steady demand and depleted world reserves, the report said.

Prices of rice increased the most following the imposition of new export restrictions by major exporting countries. By the end of March prices of wheat and rice were about double their levels of a year earlier, while those of maize were more than one-third higher, according to the report.

FAO has launched an Initiative on Soaring Food Prices (ISFP), offering technical and policy assistance to poor countries affected by high food prices in order to assist vulnerable farmers to increase local food production. Field activities are starting in Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Mozambique and Senegal. FAO will also help governments prepare actions and strategies to increase agricultural production. In collaboration with the World Food Programme, IFAD and other partners, FAO will enlarge its food market information system to pull together and analyze various data sources at local, national and international levels and to disseminate this information. FAO has allocated US$17 million for these activities.

Domestic food prices spur social unrest

Prices of bread, rice, maize products, milk, oil, soybeans and others basic foods have increased sharply in recent months in a number of developing countries, despite policy measures -- including export restrictions, subsidies, tariff reductions and price controls -- taken by governments of both cereal importing and exporting countries to limit the impact of international prices on domestic food markets.

Food riots have been reported in Egypt, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Madagascar, the Philippines and Haiti in the past month. In Pakistan and Thailand, army troops have been deployed to avoid seizing of food from the fields and from warehouses.

“Food price inflation hits the poor hardest, as the share of food in their total expenditures is much higher than that of wealthier populations,” said Henri Josserand of FAO’s Global Information and Early Warning system. “Food represents about 10-20 percent of consumer spending in industrialized nations, but as much as 60-80 percent in developing countries, many of which are net-food-importers.”

2008 forecast: production up

According to FAO’s first forecast world cereal production in 2008 is to increase by 2.6 percent to a record 2 164 million tonnes. The bulk of the increase is expected in wheat, following significant expansion in plantings in major producing countries.

“Should the expected growth in 2008 production materialize, the current tight global cereal supply situation could ease in the new 2008/09 season,” the report said.

But much will depend on the weather, FAO cautioned, recalling that at this time last year prospects for cereal production in 2007 were far better than the eventual outcome. Unfavourable climatic conditions devastated crops in Australia and reduced harvests in many other countries, particularly in Europe.

“Favourable climatic conditions will be even more critical in the new season because world cereal reserves are depleted,” the report said.

According to FAO’s forecast, world cereal stocks are expected to fall to a 25-year-low of 405 million tonnes in 2007/08, down 21 million tonnes, or 5 percent, from their already reduced level of the previous year.

“Any major shortfalls resulting from unfavourable weather, particularly in exporting countries, would prolong the current tight market situation; contribute to more price rallies and exacerbate the economic hardship already facing many countries,” the report said.

FAO urges all donors and International Financing Institutions to increase their assistance or consider reprogramming part of their ongoing aid in countries negatively affected by high food prices. A tentative estimation of the additional funding required by the governments to implement country projects and programmes for dealing with soaring food prices ranges between US$ 1,2 and 1,7 billion. The release of these funds can provide important support for poor farmers, including access to inputs and assets, to enhance the food supply response in the next agricultural seasons.

Worldwide, 37 countries are currently facing food crises, according to the report. Click here for the complete list of countries in need of external assistance.

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