In this image a portion of the lush green rice field is seen in Tuensang district. (Photo Courtesy/Manen Aier)
Kohima, October 15 (DIPR): World Food Day will be commemorated on October 16. This year’s theme is ‘Food Prices: From Crisis to Stability’. Director Agriculture, A.Y. Ovung has stated in a press release that this is a burning issue confronting the country and the world. A message from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations on the occasion was also released to the local media.
According to the FAO it was urged upon to look seriously at what causes swings in food prices, and “do what needs to be done to reduce their impact on the weakest members of global society”.
It was disclosed that food prices between 2005 and 2008 soared to their highest levels in 30 years. During the last 18 months of that period, maize prices increased by 74 percent while that of rice almost tripled, climbing 166 percent.
The FAO also stated that food riots broke out in more than 20 countries and that editorialist decreed the end of cheap food. But then, after peaking in June 2008, prices slumped again – falling 33 percent in six months – largely as a vast financial and banking crisis threw the global economy into recession.
The downturn was short – lived, however in 2010 grain prices shot up 50 percent and continued to soar in to 2011 before starting to dip somewhat in the second quarter of 2011. And at that point what would happen next was very much an open question, the FAO stated.
Economists believed however, that the kind of price roller coasters experienced since 2006 are likely to recur in the coming years. In other words food price volatility – the technical term for the phenomenon – has probably come to stay.
That is not good news. Price swings, up swings in particular, represent a major threat to food security in developing countries. Hardest – hit are the poor. According to the World Bank, in 2010-2011 rising food costs pushed nearly 70 million people in to extreme poverty.
World Food Day on Oct 16
“Food Prices – From Crisis to Stability” has been chosen as this year’s World Food Day theme to shed some light on this trend and what can be done to mitigate its impact on the most vulnerable.
At the level of net food importing countries, price spikes can hurt poor countries by making it much more expensive for them to import food for their people. In 2010 the World’s Low Income Food Deficit Countries (LIFDCs) spent a record US$164 billion on food imports representing a rise of 20 percent on the year before.
At the level of individuals, people living on less than US$1.25 a day may need to skip a meal when food prices rise. Farmers are hurt too because they badly need to know the price their crops are going to fetch at harvest time, months away. If high prices are likely they plant more. If low prices are forecast they plant less and cut costs.
Further as per the FAO, rapid price swings make that calculation much more difficult. Farmers can easily end up producing too much or too little. In stable markets they can make a living. Volatile ones can ruin them while also generally discouraging much-needed investment in agriculture.
Recognizing the major threat that food price swings pose to the world’s poorest countries and people, the international community, led by the G20, moved in 2011 to find ways of managing volatility on international food commodity markets, the FAO informed.
According to the FAO it was urged upon to look seriously at what causes swings in food prices, and “do what needs to be done to reduce their impact on the weakest members of global society”.
It was disclosed that food prices between 2005 and 2008 soared to their highest levels in 30 years. During the last 18 months of that period, maize prices increased by 74 percent while that of rice almost tripled, climbing 166 percent.
The FAO also stated that food riots broke out in more than 20 countries and that editorialist decreed the end of cheap food. But then, after peaking in June 2008, prices slumped again – falling 33 percent in six months – largely as a vast financial and banking crisis threw the global economy into recession.
The downturn was short – lived, however in 2010 grain prices shot up 50 percent and continued to soar in to 2011 before starting to dip somewhat in the second quarter of 2011. And at that point what would happen next was very much an open question, the FAO stated.
Economists believed however, that the kind of price roller coasters experienced since 2006 are likely to recur in the coming years. In other words food price volatility – the technical term for the phenomenon – has probably come to stay.
That is not good news. Price swings, up swings in particular, represent a major threat to food security in developing countries. Hardest – hit are the poor. According to the World Bank, in 2010-2011 rising food costs pushed nearly 70 million people in to extreme poverty.
World Food Day on Oct 16
“Food Prices – From Crisis to Stability” has been chosen as this year’s World Food Day theme to shed some light on this trend and what can be done to mitigate its impact on the most vulnerable.
At the level of net food importing countries, price spikes can hurt poor countries by making it much more expensive for them to import food for their people. In 2010 the World’s Low Income Food Deficit Countries (LIFDCs) spent a record US$164 billion on food imports representing a rise of 20 percent on the year before.
At the level of individuals, people living on less than US$1.25 a day may need to skip a meal when food prices rise. Farmers are hurt too because they badly need to know the price their crops are going to fetch at harvest time, months away. If high prices are likely they plant more. If low prices are forecast they plant less and cut costs.
Further as per the FAO, rapid price swings make that calculation much more difficult. Farmers can easily end up producing too much or too little. In stable markets they can make a living. Volatile ones can ruin them while also generally discouraging much-needed investment in agriculture.
Recognizing the major threat that food price swings pose to the world’s poorest countries and people, the international community, led by the G20, moved in 2011 to find ways of managing volatility on international food commodity markets, the FAO informed.
Two minute silence for millions who go hungry
Kohima, October 15 (MExN): Observance of two minute silence to remember the millions around the world who go hungry, was among the many highlights that marked the World Food Day in Nagaland today. In the state capital, the day was observed today instead of October 16 being Sunday under the theme “Food prices: From crisis to stability.” Held at the Directorate of agriculture, AY Ovung director agriculture exhorted one and all to focus on increasing production and productivity through adoption of modern farming techniques including inputs so that the department can achieve food sufficiency in the state. Dr. Dipak Chetri, joint director made an address on significance of World Food Day and how the food process and global food commodity market were interrelated to result in rapid and volatile price swings leading to extreme food crisis, leading to extreme poverty and hunger hitting 98 % of the poor living in developing countries. Short speeches were delivered by N. Tekatoshi, joint director SARS, Rongseninla, deputy director and Dr. I. Amenla, LTO. The gathering was also encouraged to create awareness within the family and society not to waste food as every grain saved is food saved.
