Food

CLICK HERE - Global Monitoring Report 2012: Food Prices, Nutrition, and the Millennium Development Goals

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WASHINGTON, Apr 20, 2012 (IPS) - Continuing near-record high food prices around the world are highlighting international inattention to a looming threat, observers here warned on Friday.

According to speakers at the launch of the World Bank-International Monetary Fund (IMF) Global Monitoring Report 2012, on the sidelines of the Bank-IMF spring meetings, a lack of focus on agriculture and nutrition in development priorities could prove disastrous in the event of another spike in food prices.

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Rice production in Asia is threaten by rapid climate change. Photo: T. Sunderland (CIFOR)

Researchers Focus on Innovations to Adapt Agriculture to Wild Swings in Climate Extremes, as Vividly Manifested by Southeast Asia’s Catastrophic Flood-drought Cycles

Bangkok (12 April 2012)—As Asia’s monsoon season begins, leading climate specialists and agricultural scientists warned today that rapid climate change and its potential to intensify droughts and floods could threaten Asia’s rice production and pose a significant threat to millions of people across the region.

“Climate change endangers crop and livestock yields and the health of fisheries and forests at the very same time that surging populations worldwide are placing new demands on food production,” said Bruce Campbell of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). “These clashing trends challenge us to transform our agriculture systems so they can sustainably deliver the food required to meet our nutritional needs and support economic development, despite rapidly shifting growing conditions.”