THE United Nations' secretary-general, Ban Ki-Moon, yesterday said he was setting up a task force to tackle the global food crisis, in an attempt to avert "social unrest on an unprecedented scale".
"The immediate priority is that we feed the hungry," Mr Ban said after a meeting with UN agency heads and other leading international officials in the Swiss capital, Berne.
Mr Ban, who will lead the task force, said he agreed with UN agency chiefs
on a series of measures for the medium and long term, including meeting the £380 million shortfall for the World Food Programme.
He said: "Without full funding of these emergency requirements, we risk again the spectre of widespread hunger, malnutrition and social unrest on an unprecedented scale."
In a statement, the UN said that the dramatic escalation in food prices worldwide has evolved into a challenge "of global proportions".
Robert Zoellick, the president of the World Bank, told a joint news conference: "Though we have seen wheat prices fall over the past few days, rice and corn prices are likely to remain high, and wheat relatively so."
The rising cost of wheat, rice and other staples has put extreme pressure on aid providers, such as the World Food Programme, a UN agency aiming to feed 73 million people.
Concern about soaring food costs and limited supplies has toppled Haiti's government and caused riots in parts of Africa.
The task force, which brings together the heads of UN agencies, funds and programmes, the IMF and the World Bank, will set priorities for a plan of action and ensure it is carried out.
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has developed an £855 million plan to provide seeds for farmers in the world's poorest countries, Mr Ban said.
He added that the crisis threatened to "undo the good work" towards ambitious development goals set by the heads of all UN member states in 2000. The eight-point plan, known as the Millennium Development Goals, sets targets to alleviate poverty, hunger and disease by 2015.
Mr Ban stressed the urgent need to support farmers in poorer countries. He said that efforts should be focused on Africa, which could double food production over a very few years, at a cost of "a relatively modest (£4 to £5 billion] annually".
He added: "In addition to increasing food prices, we see farmers in developing countries planting less, producing less, due to the escalating cost of fertiliser and energy. We must make every effort to support those farmers so that, in the coming year, we do not see even more severe food shortages."
There was at least some short-term easing in prices of key commodities yesterday.
US rice futures fell more than 2.5 per cent as Thailand, the world's biggest exporter, said it would release government stocks for domestic use and traders looked ahead to Asian harvests. The Thai pledge to release 2.1 million tonnes of stockpiled rice came a day after a trade official said the country's rice prices were likely to ease by about 20 per cent in coming weeks.
Rice prices are expected to ease as countries rush to boost output, but the market is unlikely to return to levels of recent years, He Changchui, the FAO's Asia head, said.
India slapped export taxes on basmati rice and other products as the government unveiled moves to tackle inflation fuelled by the rise in food prices.
The World Bank called on countries not to ban food exports, saying it only worsened the problem.
Mr Zoellick said: "These controls encourage hoarding, drive up prices and hurt the poorest people around the world who are struggling to feed themselves."
Last night, George Bush, the US president, said he was deeply concerned about high food prices at home and abroad.
However, he said that the production of biofuels, which was "in the US national interest", played only a small part in the problem.
WHY PRICES ARE SOARINGTHE UN Food and Agriculture Organisation's food price index, measuring market prices of cereals, dairy produce, meat, sugar and oils, rose 57 per cent in the year to March. The surge is due to increased demand in developing countries, higher fuel costs, drought in Australia, use of crops for biofuels and speculation on global commodity markets.
Farmers in the developing world are not benefiting from the higher prices. They tend to eat most of what they grow, rather than sell it, and higher prices for fuel and fertiliser are putting them off growing more, World Bank analysis shows. "They are fearful they face very high input costs," said Robert Zoellick, its president.
