World leaders discuss global food crisis
Tuesday, 03 Jun 2008 20:02
World leaders will today address soaring global food prices
A United Nations (UN)-sponsored summit is taking place in Rome today, aimed at addressing the problem of soaring global food prices.
UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon began proceedings by warning that world food production will have to rise by 50 per cent by 2030 to meet growing demand.
Mr Ban declared the world had a "historic opportunity to revitalise agriculture".
He also called for import tariffs and export restrictions to be reduced to help ease the global crisis.
In some regions of the world, foods prices are currently at their highest level in 30 years, causing mass protests and riots in countries such as Haiti.
Today's summit will aim to resolve the crisis although many observers have so far focused more on the presence of
Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe. His attendance has been criticised and described as "obscene" by the UK and Australia.
The BBC quotes Australian foreign minister Stephen Smith as saying that Mr Mugabe was "the person who had presided over the starvation of his people".
Mr Mugabe, addressing the summit this afternoon, said the trend towards a global crisis was a "cause for concern to all global leaders".
He recited a long list of measures his government has introduced to help Zimbabwean farmers, including the development of irrigated agriculture and loans to farmers.
Inflation in Zimbabwe, widely attributed to Mr Mugabe's land reforms, is above 100,000 per cent.
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation has repeatedly warned ahead of the summit that the leading industrialised nations need to rapidly increase yields and transport food to where it is needed most urgently to prevent the crisis escalating any further.
Recent figures suggest that 100 million people have been pushed into hunger due to the high food prices.