United Nations has asked the international community to raise the agricultural production to end the global food crisis, which has driven more than 75 million additional people worldwide into hunger and poverty.
"The prices are likely to remain high for several years, even though bumper cereal harvests are expected this year," Jacques Diff, Director-General, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FA) said in his address to the Italian Parliament yesterday, "We are facing a challenge of enormous proportions," Diff, head of the Rome-based UN agency, said.
"We must mobilise $30 billion a year in order to double food production so as to feed a world population of nine billion in 2050."
He noted that the proposed spending figure is modest when compared with the amount already given in agricultural subsidies by members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimated at $376 billion in 2006.
He urged the international community to unite and ensure that the ranks of the malnourished about 850 million people even before the current crisis began receive immediate support.