Crisis far from over despite fall in food prices: WFP
Monday, 30 March 2009
Two million children in Bangladesh suffered from acute malnutrition because of food price hikes last year, a United Nations study said Sunday, describing the problem as a "silent emergency", reports AFP
Food prices in Bangladesh almost doubled in 2008 after the country's grain production was devastated by major flooding and a catastrophic cyclone the previous year.
Global food prices also hit record highs, prompting many countries to impose curbs on exports, which badly affected poor countries like Bangladesh.
According to the UN survey, 58 per cent of households said that they hadn't had enough food during the last twelve months.
At the end of 2008, food accounted for 62 per cent of household expenditure, 10 percentage points higher than the national average of 2005, it said.
To cope with higher food prices, people had got themselves deeper into debt that it would take months or even years to pay off.
"Even if the prices of food are now falling, the crisis is far from being over," said John Aylieff, a representative of the UN's World Food Programme.
Almost half of the surveyed children aged six months to five years were found to be too short for their age, the survey found.
Bangladesh, which has a population of 144 million, is one of the world's poorest countries.
Food prices in Bangladesh almost doubled in 2008 after the country's grain production was devastated by major flooding and a catastrophic cyclone the previous year.
Global food prices also hit record highs, prompting many countries to impose curbs on exports, which badly affected poor countries like Bangladesh.
According to the UN survey, 58 per cent of households said that they hadn't had enough food during the last twelve months.
At the end of 2008, food accounted for 62 per cent of household expenditure, 10 percentage points higher than the national average of 2005, it said.
To cope with higher food prices, people had got themselves deeper into debt that it would take months or even years to pay off.
"Even if the prices of food are now falling, the crisis is far from being over," said John Aylieff, a representative of the UN's World Food Programme.
Almost half of the surveyed children aged six months to five years were found to be too short for their age, the survey found.
Bangladesh, which has a population of 144 million, is one of the world's poorest countries.