THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
nationthailand

Poor at risk as climate-change concern continue to drive up

Poor at risk as climate-change concern continue to drive up

Prices of food crops are expected to continue to increase throughout next year as concern grows over the effects of climate change.

The price-rise trend risks damaging the livelihoods and well-being of yet more of the world’s poor, international organisations warned yesterday.
This year, the prices of key crops such as wheat, soybean and maize have increased by an average of 30-40 per cent. Predicting that the upward trend will continue, officials have said that not only should individual countries seek to solve the problem of high food prices, but there must also be a concrete outcome at the regional level to alleviate the problem.
At a two-day conference on “High-Level Regional Consultation on Policies to Respond to High Food Prices in Asia and the Pacific Region” in Bangkok, panellists were of the view that the region, which is a major source of many of the world’s key staple crops, should come up with strong action to tackle rising food prices.
Weather has been among the main drivers of food prices continuing to soar, they said.
Hiroyuki Konuma, assistant director-general of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation, said that although the food-price situation had not yet reached a critical level, mounting climate-change effects had increased concern that higher prices had the potential to damage the interests of people around the globe, and especially the poor.
“Every country should watch the situation very closely on the changes in weather and the impact on agricultural production and prices,” he said.
The conference is expected to come up with a strong message for every country and the whole region when it comes to tackling the problem of increasing food prices, he added.
One of the most important steps every country needs to take is to learn the lessons from previous food-price crises, the FAO official said, citing the following policy measures in particular: refraining from imposing food-export restrictions; discouraging excessive use of food grains for bio-energy production; preventing excessive speculation of food commodities beyond usual market practices; enhancing market transparency; and promoting a social safety net, such as a conditional cash-voucher scheme.
Lourdes Adriano, adviser and concurrently practice leader at the agriculture, rural development and food security unit of the Asian Development Bank’s sustainable development department, said that while food prices were difficult to predict, she expected to see them continuing to rise, despite the euro-zone economic crisis.
Although many countries have focused more on innovation to increase the output of farm goods to alleviate rising prices, innovation and development generally take a long time to work through, so prices will continue to rise, she said.
 
Climate-change challenge
Moreover, climate change will also affect large areas of land and create challenges for the supply of farm crops, she added.
Ganesh Thapa, regional economist at the International Fund for Agricultural Development, said the region should enhance its overall production capacity to cope with rising food prices.
Although the crisis in the European Union would have a positive affect on food prices because of the economic downturn, prices are still expected to rise, as the major concern is the impact of climate change in many producer countries, he said.
Kenro Oshidari, regional director of the World Food Programme, emphasised his concern over the effect of higher food prices on poor families, the bulk of whose spending is on foods.
He said that while the FAO Food Price Index had shown increased stability in August, every organisation needed to remain vigilant as the crucial need was to protect more people from sliding into hunger.
Each country should also support long-term investment in agriculture, while ensuring safety nets are in place to help the poor avoid hunger and the loss of livelihoods.
Other issues being tackled during the conference include: urgent measures to increase transparency and provide better information on agricultural markets; improving policy coordination to share views and plans for immediate actions and strengthen cooperation among nations; implementation of measures to cope with risks, such as market-based risk management tools; and agricultural insurance and capacity-building.
The development of strategic food-security stocks to provide emergency relief to the poor during a crisis is also being considered.

nationthailand