Dari Dawn Pakistan kito baco, disalin tanpa izin untuak dibaco Rang Lapau.
May 05, 2008 Monday Rabi-us-Sani 28, 1429
Surge in food prices may undo gains of a decade
MADRID, May 4: Soaring food prices may throw millions of people back into
poverty in Asia and undo gains of a decade, regional leaders said on Sunday
while calling for increased agricultural production to meet rising demand.
Asia --- home to two thirds of the world's poor --- faces growing social unrest
as a doubling of wheat and rice prices in the last year has hurt people
spending more than half their income on food, Japanese Finance Minister
Fukushiro Nukaga said during the Asian Development Bank's annual meeting.
If food prices rise 20 per cent, 100 million poor people across Asia could be
forced back into extreme poverty, warned Indian Finance Secretary D. Subba Rao.
"In many countries that will mean the undoing of gains in poverty reduction
achieved in the past decade of growth," Rao told the ADB's meeting in Madrid.
A 43 per cent rise in global food prices in the year to March sparked violent
protests in Cameroon and Burkina Faso as well as rallies in Indonesia following
reports of starvation deaths.
Many governments have introduced food subsidies or export restrictions to
counter rising costs, but they have only exacerbated price rises on global
markets, Nukaga said. "Those hardest hit are the poorest segments of the
population, especially the urban poor," he told delegates.
"It will have a negative impact on their living standards and their nutrition,
a situation that may lead to social unrest and distrust," he added.
The ADB estimates the very poorest people in the Asia Pacific region spend 60
per cent of their income on food and a further 15 per cent on fuel --- the key
basic commodities of life which have seen their prices rise relentlessly in the
last year.
Japan is one of 67 ADB member economies gathered in Spain to discuss measures
to counter severe weather and rising demand that have ended decades of cheap
food in developing nations.The Asia-Pacific has three times the population of
Europe --- around 1.5 billion people --- living on less than $2 a day.
Rice is a staple food in most Asian nations and any shortage threatens
instability, making governments extremely sensitive to its price.
High inflation, driven by food and raw material costs, has topped the agenda of
the ADB's annual meeting.
The bank on Saturday called for immediate action from global governments to
combat soaring food prices and twinned it with a pledge of fresh financial aid
to help feed the Asia Pacific region's poorest nations.
--Reuters
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