Related Articles
Top Stories
May 25 2012 13:58
The costs of the first phase of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project have increased significantly to almost R90bn, according to a report.
May 24 2012 17:31
The Reserve Bank will maintain current interest rates, and a considerable reduction in the local petrol price is anticipated, says governor Gill Marcus.
May 25 2012 11:36
The JSE has identified and stopped "incorrect" trades from one of its members, and will reverse the trades and lower the session's total value after the close.
New Delhi - High food prices and shortages will continue in the near term, making some poorer countries vulnerable to food riots, Jacques Diouf, director general of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, said on Wednesday.
"The problem is very serious around the world due to severe price rises and we have seen riots in Egypt, Cameroon, Haiti and Burkina
Faso," he told reporters in New Delhi.
Five people have been killed in a week of demonstrations in Haiti over high food prices in the poorest country in the Americas.
"There is a risk that this unrest will spread in countries where 50 to 60% of income goes to food," Diouf added.
He said world cereal stocks were enough to meet eight to 12 weeks demand, while grain stocks were at their lowest since the 1980s.
"This is due to higher demand from countries like India, China, where GDP grows at 8-10 percent and the increase in income is going to food," Diouf said after meeting India's farm minister, Sharad Pawar.
He said he was advising governments to invest in irrigation, storage facilities and rural infrastructure and increase productivity to meet the challenge of food scarcity.
- Reuters