There was a need to look at both "the immediate needs and longer-term issues starting right now and the focus is on the small-holder farmers in developing countries," said Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes.
He told reporters that the $6 billion figure was in addition to existing pledges of up to $7 billion that were also announced at the High-level Conference on World Food Security in Rome.
He stressed that the new "Comprehensive Framework for Action" was reached by consensus among the members of the international task force convened by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, which brings together the heads of the World Bank, the IMF, World Trade Organisation (WTO) and key UN agencies.
The plan focuses on a series of measures to meet immediate needs and also to build longer-term resilience to food crises in the future.
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Among the immediate measures proposed in the plan are increasing nutritional and other feeding programmes, as well as supplying fertilizers, seeds, animal feed and veterinary services to help small-holder farmers in the current planting season.