Asians especially vulnerable to food shortages and high prices
Stephen Kaufman from Washington | Tuesday, 1 July 2008
WITH more than 60 per cent of the world's undernourished people living in the Asia-Pacific region, the soaring cost of food is pushing many back into poverty as they try to cope with the increased challenge of putting food on the table.
An official at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says the region is especially vulnerable to the global food crisis, despite the fact that the economies of countries such as China have been performing extremely well. FAO Assistant Director-General He Changchai said the combination of Asia's large populations and relatively low per capita incomes have put many, especially in rural areas, at risk.
"Generally, the poor are living in marginalized areas with poor resource endowments and extremely weak infrastructure and services, and almost with no linkages to the mainstream economy," he said early last month at the Asia and Pacific Commission on Agricultural Statistics meeting in Malaysia.
According to FAO statistics, of the 527 million people suffering from chronic hunger in South and East Asia, 163 million are in East Asia and 64 million live in Southeast Asia.
Rice, the source of one-third of the caloric intake of Asians, remains a hot commodity on the financial markets. Its price has risen much faster than that of wheat and corn. At the beginning of 2007, both had the same price; by January 2008, rice cost $1,000 per ton compared to $400 for a ton of wheat and $200 for a ton of corn.
Natural disasters add to national woes: Recent natural disasters are exacerbating the decline in food security. In early May, Cyclone Nargis devastated Burma's Irawaddy delta, which normally produces two-thirds of the country's rice. According to the United Nations, in some places the damage was worse than that caused by the December 2004 tsunami.
Australia, the world's second-largest wheat exporter, is suffering its worst drought in 100 years.
Along with damage to rice paddies, existing food stocks and rice seed were lost, as well as livestock, tools and farming equipment. The United Nations estimates it will cost $243 million to resupply the farmers so they can resume their work.
Even before Nargis, Burmese farmers were coping with high prices for imported fertilisers, costs that were difficult to offset with the low crop prices. Burma's military leaders have pledged to maintain their contracted rice-export commitments despite the food shortages their own people are facing.
North Korea, which has depended on food aid since the 1990s, saw its 2007 harvests devastated by floods. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) predicted in April that the country's 2008 food deficit will double from its 2007 level of 1.83 million tons, and estimated 6.5 million people already face food shortages.
Australia, normally the second-largest wheat exporter in the world, continues to suffer from the country's worst drought in 100 years. Farmers in regional breadbaskets like New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland are paying high fertilizer and fuel prices that cancel any extra revenue generated by the increased crop prices.
Indonesia has seen a series of natural disasters -- tsunamis in 2004 and 2006 and an earthquake in 2005 -- that depressed crop production and left many citizens vulnerable to hunger.
Faced with shortages and a reduction in arable land due to development and disaster, some Asian countries are reducing food exports. Vietnam, the world's second-largest rice exporter, reduced its export caps from 4.5 million tons to 4.0 million and has stopped all new export contracts until the end of June.
China, which has 40 per cent of the world's farmers but only 9.0 per cent of the world's arable land, reportedly is encouraging its companies to purchase farmland overseas, especially in Africa and South America. According to the Financial Times, the Chinese government particularly is interested in boosting its food security through the production of soybeans, bananas, vegetables and edible oil crops.
Region seeks solutions: Some are calling for a more cooperative approach to feed the region's people. Leaders of the Asia-Europe People's Forum (AEPF), an organization of civil society groups, have proposed a "buffer fund" to minimize the impact of the crisis.
The AEPF envisions a system that would showcase "the leading export products of each nation so we can avoid monopolies in the supply and pricing of commodities," Malaysian parliamentarian Charles Santiago told the Philippine Daily Inquirer early last month.
In the meantime, international aid agencies such as the World Food Programme are likely to play the leading role in staving off mass food shortages and starvation. The organization is providing roughly $5.0 billion to help nearly 90 million people in 78 countries in 2008. Early June, it announced an additional $1.2 billion worth of aid to help tens of millions of more people in countries that are hit hardest by the food crisis.
By courtesy: The US Department of State's Bureau of International Information Programmes and released by the US Embassy in Dhaka
An official at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says the region is especially vulnerable to the global food crisis, despite the fact that the economies of countries such as China have been performing extremely well. FAO Assistant Director-General He Changchai said the combination of Asia's large populations and relatively low per capita incomes have put many, especially in rural areas, at risk.
"Generally, the poor are living in marginalized areas with poor resource endowments and extremely weak infrastructure and services, and almost with no linkages to the mainstream economy," he said early last month at the Asia and Pacific Commission on Agricultural Statistics meeting in Malaysia.
According to FAO statistics, of the 527 million people suffering from chronic hunger in South and East Asia, 163 million are in East Asia and 64 million live in Southeast Asia.
Rice, the source of one-third of the caloric intake of Asians, remains a hot commodity on the financial markets. Its price has risen much faster than that of wheat and corn. At the beginning of 2007, both had the same price; by January 2008, rice cost $1,000 per ton compared to $400 for a ton of wheat and $200 for a ton of corn.
Natural disasters add to national woes: Recent natural disasters are exacerbating the decline in food security. In early May, Cyclone Nargis devastated Burma's Irawaddy delta, which normally produces two-thirds of the country's rice. According to the United Nations, in some places the damage was worse than that caused by the December 2004 tsunami.
Australia, the world's second-largest wheat exporter, is suffering its worst drought in 100 years.
Along with damage to rice paddies, existing food stocks and rice seed were lost, as well as livestock, tools and farming equipment. The United Nations estimates it will cost $243 million to resupply the farmers so they can resume their work.
Even before Nargis, Burmese farmers were coping with high prices for imported fertilisers, costs that were difficult to offset with the low crop prices. Burma's military leaders have pledged to maintain their contracted rice-export commitments despite the food shortages their own people are facing.
North Korea, which has depended on food aid since the 1990s, saw its 2007 harvests devastated by floods. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) predicted in April that the country's 2008 food deficit will double from its 2007 level of 1.83 million tons, and estimated 6.5 million people already face food shortages.
Australia, normally the second-largest wheat exporter in the world, continues to suffer from the country's worst drought in 100 years. Farmers in regional breadbaskets like New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland are paying high fertilizer and fuel prices that cancel any extra revenue generated by the increased crop prices.
Indonesia has seen a series of natural disasters -- tsunamis in 2004 and 2006 and an earthquake in 2005 -- that depressed crop production and left many citizens vulnerable to hunger.
Faced with shortages and a reduction in arable land due to development and disaster, some Asian countries are reducing food exports. Vietnam, the world's second-largest rice exporter, reduced its export caps from 4.5 million tons to 4.0 million and has stopped all new export contracts until the end of June.
China, which has 40 per cent of the world's farmers but only 9.0 per cent of the world's arable land, reportedly is encouraging its companies to purchase farmland overseas, especially in Africa and South America. According to the Financial Times, the Chinese government particularly is interested in boosting its food security through the production of soybeans, bananas, vegetables and edible oil crops.
Region seeks solutions: Some are calling for a more cooperative approach to feed the region's people. Leaders of the Asia-Europe People's Forum (AEPF), an organization of civil society groups, have proposed a "buffer fund" to minimize the impact of the crisis.
The AEPF envisions a system that would showcase "the leading export products of each nation so we can avoid monopolies in the supply and pricing of commodities," Malaysian parliamentarian Charles Santiago told the Philippine Daily Inquirer early last month.
In the meantime, international aid agencies such as the World Food Programme are likely to play the leading role in staving off mass food shortages and starvation. The organization is providing roughly $5.0 billion to help nearly 90 million people in 78 countries in 2008. Early June, it announced an additional $1.2 billion worth of aid to help tens of millions of more people in countries that are hit hardest by the food crisis.
By courtesy: The US Department of State's Bureau of International Information Programmes and released by the US Embassy in Dhaka