UN food agency pushes for solutions to food crisis

UNITED NATIONS: The UN’s World Food Program (WFP) is pushing for both urgent and long-term solutions to the food crisis that is facing the world, the head of the agency said Thursday.

WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran told UN reporters that soaring food prices and tight supplies are endangering the efforts of the agency to feed millions of hungry people around the world.

“We can buy 40 per cent less food than we could last June with the same contribution,” Sheeran said. She said WFP is working with its partners such as the UN Children’s Fund, or UNICEF, for increased resources to meet the urgent needs of the most vulnerable.

The agency is also pushing for efforts, in cooperation with the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and others, to deal with the shortage of fertiliser and seeds for the planting season.

Sheeran stressed WFP is also seeking long-term solutions, such as increasing investment and improving infrastructure, so as to boost agricultural production in developing countries.

She described the current food crisis as “a silent tsunami.”

“It knows no borders and it’s affecting many and it’s in a way has been moving quietly throughout the globe, but we are seeing the same kind of effects that we see in a storm where we see people left unable to meet their basic needs,” she said. - Xinhua