The head of the UN World Food Program (WFP) asked Wednesday the US, the worlds largest donor, to double its food aid spending because of soaring food prices that make millions of people go hungry.
WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran made the request to the Budget Committee of the House of Representatives in Wasington D.C. – I am asking the committee to consider making global food assistance a higher priority so we can get ahead of the hunger curve, said the WFP leader.
As part of her testimony, Sheeran (herself an American) said US food aid spending should be boosted to levels high enough that stop-gap bills are not needed. She asked for some of US aid to be in cash so food aid can be purchased from growers near to hunger areas, rather than solely US-grown food.
Meanwhile, food prices in developing countries face higher inflation as the wholesale price of traditional crops is rising strongly on the back of abnormally high demand.
UN agriculture and food aid officials said that record prices of imported food have prompted a substitution effect, boosting the demand – and the price – of indigenous staples such as yam, sweet potato, sorghum (durra), cassava, millet (hirse) or teff in Africa, Latin America and parts of Asia.
The increase in local crops prices is a new feature of the food crisis. Adam Prakash, an economist at the UNs Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, said prices of indigenous crops had been relatively insulated from the crisis until a few months ago.
The seasonal downward trend in local staples prices, which usually occurs during the post-harvest period and provides some relief to families, was less marked than in previous years because of demand, officials said.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
