Azerbaijan, Baku, 2 July / Trend corr. A.Badalova / The recent world food crisis is one of the most painful problems of humanity. The crisis will have serious consequences for the poor countries, where more than half of population deprived of enough foods, So, over 5mln people die from hunger in Africa annually.
The UN World Food program predicts that the current food crisis will seriously effect people, who spend over 80% of their salary on foodn which means 100mln people.
The demands and prices for foods are growing per day, particularly in the developing countries. According to the International Monetory Fund (IMF), food prices have increased by 60% in three yeras. However, the World Bank says there is price rise by 80%.
According to the UN, from the beginning of this year grain and rice prices increased over 50% and 80%. Grain, according to the World Bank, makes up about 40% of total volume of world food.
Price rise is accompanied by hunger protests in a range of countries. Hunger protests covered over 30 countries - Africa, Middle East, Asia and the Caribbean peninsula.
Experts have different attitude towards increase in prices for food. One of the reasons is the rise in the energy source prices since they are included in the transport constituents and are used in fertilizer production. The cost for one oil barrel exceeded $143 this week. Weakening of the relations between food and energy power may certainly stabilize the food market.
A senior expert on world economy at the American Brookings Institute Homi Kharas, who previously was World Bank's senior economist on East Asia and Asian-Pacific region, thinks it is imperative to re-conceive whether it is reasonable to maintain close connection between fossil fuel market, which will be changed in future, and food market, which requires price stability.
On the other hand, rising oil prices make biofuel more attractive, which means rise in grain demand, which may be used both for food and production of fuel.
According to American International Food Policy Research Institute, amount of grain used for production of biofuel between 2000 and 2007 grew only by a quarter. Thus, broad utilization of biofuel is not the only and main reason for food crisis.
Some people say food prices are rising due to irregular policy pursued in the food market, including high agricultural taxes and trade barriers.
But there are other factors as well affecting food market - unfavourable climate changes, which have lingered agricultural production, and increase in food demand in developing countries, in particular in most densely populated areas - India and China, due to fast population and life level growth rates.
The entire world community is now concerned about the food crisis resulting from high food prices. Even developed countries are concerned. A range of international organizations are seeking for variants to prevent horrible consequences of the crisis.
The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) demanded collections worth $1.8bln to provide low-income families with seeds and other agricultural aid. Funds for express financial aid worth $1.2bln was raised at the initiative of the World Bank to meet top-priority needs of the population and increase food production including $200mln worth target grants for the poorest countries all over the world.
A working group was set up at the initiative of the UN Secretary General to prevent the food crisis. During the international conference held under the UN auspice in early June in May the working group developed measures to fight food crisis including rise in the volume of aid through direct food aid, development of support program and social aid for more vulnerable layers of population, insuring more free movement of agricultural products, providing appropriate governments with the financial aid to take measures against rise in the food prices.
The food crisis and food security are issues which has to be focus of attention. The increasing rise in food prices can deal a serious blow to the world economy. The world security cal also be threatened. However, there is no any comforting forecast for the near future. According to the UN forecast, the number of starving people all over the world can reach 100mln by 2030 and further aggravations of the situation can lead to the wars over food.
The disputes over the food will keep on growing due to the rise in the number of population and transition of economies to the developed one. The high oil prices is likely to increase up to $250-$300 a barrel in the future, the fact which enables to assume that the cheap food era has come to end.
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