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	Initiative on soaring food prices now covers 54 countries - much more support needed by UN Food & Agriculture Organization   9 July 2008   Vulnerable populations are the main target.   FAO has just approved a series of projects in 48 countries (see list below) for a total value of US$ 21 million to help small farmers and vulnerable households mitigate the negative effects of rising food and input prices.   The projects will provide farmers with agricultural inputs as of this month for an expected duration of one year. Funded by the Technical Cooperation Programme – i.e. FAO''s own resources – they are part of FAO’s Initiative on soaring food prices (ISFP).   With six countries already benefiting for a total amount of nearly US$ 2.8 million (Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Haiti, Mauritania, Mozambique and Senegal), FAO’s own funding under the Initiative on soaring food prices now covers 54 countries.   The immediate objective of these projects is to ensure the success of the next planting seasons and, in the longer term, demonstrate that by increasing the supply of key agricultural inputs, such as seeds and fertilizers, small farmers will be able to rapidly increase their food production.   Increased food production would help cushion small farmers, who often have to buy part of their food from markets with rising food prices and would, hopefully, lead to a surplus production that could be sold, increasing their income and facilitating the access to food of the rural and urban population.   The provision of seeds, fertilizers and other agricultural inputs to small farmers is intended to encourage donors, financial institutions and national governments to support the provision of inputs on a much larger scale, according to FAO experts who stress that their Initiative is intended to produce a salutary catalytic effect that will encourage development partners to contribute to similar projects, but on a larger scale.   According to FAO, countries most affected, especially in Africa, will need at least a total of US$1.7 billion to start reviving agricultural systems that have been neglected for several decades. And this amount is just for immediate and short term measures during 2008-2009.   The unprecedented hike in food prices, which rose 52 percent between 2007 and 2008, has had severe economic, social and political consequences in poor countries. And high prices of agricultural inputs have become a major obstacle to developing countries'' efforts to increase agricultural production. For the period January 2007 to April 2008, fertilizer prices in particular shot up at a much faster rate than food prices.   Anticipating the widespread impact and grave nature of soaring food prices, in December 2007, FAO launched its Initiative on soaring food prices to help vulnerable countries put in place urgent measures to boost food supplies by ensuring the success of their agricultural campaigns and to provide policy support to improve access to food.   The 48 new countries benefiting from FAO’s drive are: Afghanistan, Angola, Armenia, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Dominica, Eritrea, Grenada, Guinée, Guinée-Bissau, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Kenya, Kyrgystan, DPR Korea, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mali, Mongolia, Nigeria, Nepal, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Philippines, Rwanda, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadine, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Timor-Leste, Togo, Yemen, Zambia. Visit the related web page
	Secret world bank report: Biofuel causing food crisis by AFP / The Guardian   22 July, 2008   Biofuels deprive world of 100 million tonnes of Food. (AFP)   The production of biofuels is depriving the world of around 100 million tons of cereals that could go to feed the hungry, the head of the UN"s Food and Agriculture Organization has warned.   Increased oil prices and trade barriers have prompted farmers to rush to cultivate more profitable crops used for biofuels rather than for food, Jacques Diouf said during a visit to Cuba.   "The result is nearly 100 million tons of cereals that have been removed from the food market to satisfy energy needs," he said.   Mr Diouf, in Cuba to study moves being made by the communist government to cope with the world food crisis, said corn and wheat outputs were being particularly hard hit.   Food prices climbing   Traditional farming systems may be "radically" upended by the large and growing energy market, said Mr Diouf, who is a fierce critic of biofuels.   "The use of agricultural resources for the energy market may introduce a completely new paradigm in world agriculture," he said.   "If energy prices remain high and the production of primary materials for the energy market continue to be an economically viable activity, the result will be a turnaround in the tendency towards decreasing real prices... and, consequently, food will continue to become more and more expensive," he cautioned.   The World Bank estimates that food prices have almost doubled over the past three years. Its president, Robert Zoellick, has said two billion people are threatened by the food crisis.   July 4, 2008   Secret world bank report: Biofuel causing food crisis. (The Guardian)   Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.   The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.   The figure emphatically contradicts the US government"s claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.   Senior development sources believe the report, completed in April, has not been published to avoid embarrassing President George Bush. "It would put the World Bank in a political hot-spot with the White House," said one yesterday.   The news comes at a critical point in the world"s negotiations on biofuels policy. Leaders of the G8 industrialised countries meet next week in Hokkaido, Japan, where they will discuss the food crisis and come under intense lobbying from campaigners calling for a moratorium on the use of plant-derived fuels.   It will also put pressure on the British government, which is due to release its own report on the impact of biofuels, the Gallagher Report. The Guardian has previously reported that the British study will state that plant fuels have played a "significant" part in pushing up food prices to record levels. Although it was expected last week, the report has still not been released.   "Political leaders seem intent on suppressing and ignoring the strong evidence that biofuels are a major factor in recent food price rises," said Robert Bailey, policy adviser at Oxfam. "It is imperative that we have the full picture. While politicians concentrate on keeping industry lobbies happy, people in poor countries cannot afford enough to eat."   Rising food prices have pushed over 100 million people worldwide below the poverty line, estimates the World Bank, and have sparked riots from Bangladesh to Egypt. Government ministers here have described higher food and fuel prices as "the first real economic crisis of globalisation".   President Bush has linked higher food prices to higher demand from India and China, but the leaked World Bank study disputes that: "Rapid income growth in developing countries has not led to large increases in global grain consumption and was not a major factor responsible for the large price increases."   Even successive droughts in Australia, calculates the report, have had a marginal impact. Instead, it argues that the EU and US drive for biofuels has had by far the biggest impact on food supply and prices.   Since April, all petrol and diesel in Britain has had to include 2.5% from biofuels. The EU has been considering raising that target to 10% by 2020, but is faced with mounting evidence that that will only push food prices higher.   "Without the increase in biofuels, global wheat and maize stocks would not have declined appreciably and price increases due to other factors would have been moderate," says the report. The basket of food prices examined in the study rose by 140% between 2002 and this February. The report estimates that higher energy and fertiliser prices accounted for an increase of only 15%, while biofuels have been responsible for a 75% jump over that period.   It argues that production of biofuels has distorted food markets in three main ways. First, it has diverted grain away from food for fuel, with over a third of US corn now used to produce ethanol and about half of vegetable oils in the EU going towards the production of biodiesel. Second, farmers have been encouraged to set land aside for biofuel production. Third, it has sparked financial speculation in grains, driving prices up higher.   Other reviews of the food crisis looked at it over a much longer period, or have not linked these three factors, and so arrived at smaller estimates of the impact from biofuels. But the report author, Don Mitchell, is a senior economist at the Bank and has done a detailed, month-by-month analysis of the surge in food prices, which allows much closer examination of the link between biofuels and food supply.   The report points out biofuels derived from sugarcane, which Brazil specializes in, have not had such a dramatic impact.   "It is clear that biofuels have huge impacts on food prices," said Dr David King, the UK government"s former chief scientific adviser, last night. "All we are doing by supporting these is subsidising higher food prices, while doing nothing to tackle climate change."   * Below is a link to the Global Development Learning Network (GDLN) - Food Crisis page. Visit the related web page
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