Prices of foodstuffs such as wheat have been hit by unrest in North Africa
The World Bank has warned that rising food prices, driven partly by rising fuel costs, are pushing millions of people into extreme poverty.
World food prices are 36% above levels of a year ago, driven by problems in the Middle East and North Africa, and remain volatile, the bank said.
That has pushed 44 million people into poverty since last June.
A further 10% rise would push 10m more below the extreme poverty line of $1.25 (76p) a day, the bank said.
And it warned that a 30% cost hike in the price of staples could lead to 34 million more poor.
‘Protect the poor’
The World Bank estimates there are about 1.2 billion people living on less than $1.25 a day.
“More poor people are suffering and more people could become poor because of high and volatile food prices,” said World Bank president Robert Zoellick.
| Food price changes Q1 2010 to Q1 2011 | |
| Source: World Bank Development Prospects Group | |
| Maize | 74% |
| Wheat | 69% |
| Palm oil | 55% |
| Soybeans | 36% |
| Beef | 30% |
| Rice | -2% |
“We have to put food first and protect the poor and vulnerable, who spend most of their money on food.”
Mr Zoellick was speaking before IMF and World Bank spring meetings later this week.
The gatherings will be attended by finance ministers and central bankers including Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, and Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King.
Nutrition
The World Bank says prices of basic commodities remain close to their 2008 peak, with the prices of wheat, maize and soya all rocketing.
The only exception is rice, which has fallen slightly in price in the past year.
The bank suggests a number of measures to help alleviate the impact of high food prices on the poor.
They include encouraging food-producing countries to ease export controls, and to divert production away from biofuels production when food prices exceed certain limits..
Other recommendations include targeting social assistance and nutritional programmes to the poorest, better weather forecasting, more investments in agriculture, the adoption of new technologies – such as rice fortification to make it more nutritious, and efforts to address climate change.
It also said financial measures were needed to prevent poor countries being subject to food price volatility.
Trust me,countries like dominican Republic never fear those calls you know why? They produce a lot of food annually.this is what the new president need to start working on as soon as he takeover. Give to the haitians farmers, that are mainly concentrated in the Dominican REpublic, a reason to return home and to start cultivating their lands then you will see how food will become no longer an issue in Haiti.
Yes we can we must start now.
For Haiti, this problem is a matter of lack of knowledge about the capacity of the country to produce the necessary goods to satisfy the need of the population.If we were serious about the country management, Haiti should be in a good standing to securing its population in terms of foods. Haiti has a capicity of natural production.
What do we need in Haiti is a real leadership with people to take the right drcision a the right moment.We hope that with the new government that something will be done.However, with the corrupt leaders from the pool of criminals of the last government like Joseph Lambert, who is asking to be integrated among the new members of the future government, you can already think that nothing will be done in the right path to save the country.
The right decision to be made is:” arrest these type of guys and take away their fortune and put them available for the benefits of the citizens of the country.Do not even think about a reunification between the old politicians, but, just start evoid these people to be living in Haiti anymore.We need to be fair and courageous in order to gain the real solution for Haiti.We need to charge them, because we know what they did to put Haiti in that place.They have to pay for what they have done whit the country.Otherwise, do not even thing about change in Haiti.
We know why they are fighting for. They are fighting to be in a position to hold the official licenses from the State to be able to continue to sale drug and make more bad money.
By May 15th, we need to start arrest Aristide, Preval , Lambert, Alexis and so on to set the country free.