The UN will review its rationing system in view of escalating food prices in the international market to help poor people in developing and under-developing countries.
According to the Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of World Food Programme (WFP), the UN agency working to eliminate hunger from the world is forced to think about rationing food aid as the prices of commodities are rising, as reported by Inquirer.
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As per the figures released by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, prices of food articles soared up to 40% globally last year. WFP’s objective is to provide food in those areas where people do not get food to eat. But now the programme will also focus on those countries which face problem of food price rise instead of shortage of food.
WFP also clarified that if the donors do not increase the money, the organization will stop giving aid to people, cut down the supply of food, or reduce its reach to people.
As per the industry experts, rise in food prices is due to escalating demand of food items in the developing countries, particularly Asian countries, bad weather conditions like floods and drought in many Central Asian countries, and heavy snowfall in China. Moreover, the population in the emerging countries is rising which, in turn, is increasing food demand though supply is very limited. Hence, the food prices are bound to increase.
Moreover, global warming too has contributed in price rise of food items because countries around the world are concentrating on increasing the production of biofuels that are produced from corn. Therefore, the demand for corn is increasing and food manufacturers buying corn at high price rate which is inflating food prices.
According to the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) of the UN, prices of cereals are consistently rising in the international market. Persistently increasing demand and depleting stocks of cereals are seemed to be the main cause of tight global supply of cereals in the current marketing season. As a result, the pressure on international market is likely to remain as it is in future.
According to a Research Analyst at RNCOS, “Soaring prices of food items are impacting poor people in under-developing and developing countries and food rationing could be an effective method to provide help to affected people. Not only this, the international food market is facing huge losses, as people are unable to buy costly food items. In such circumstances, other international organizations should come forward to help world food industry and poor people worldwide.”
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