Food prices to make 64 mn Asians, 30 mn Indians dirt poor, says ADB

Soaring food prices, which averaged 10 per cent in many economies this year, can push close to 30 million Indians and 64 million people in the Asian region into extreme poverty, an ADB report said on Tuesday. Titled ‘Global Food Price Inflation and Developing Asia’, the report claimed a 10 per cent rise in food prices could push 64 million Asians to subsist below the poverty line level of $1.25 a day. In the case of India, while food inflation at 10 per cent will render 23 million people in rural areas and 6.68 million living in cities dirt poor, a 20 per cent rise in food prices will throw 45.64 million rural people and 13.36 million urban people in a woeful state, the report said.