$750m needed to combat food crisis globally - World Bank

Gbola Subair, Abuja - 01.05.2008

As Nigeria approved N80 billion for rice importation, the World Bank has disclosed that $750 million was needed to combat food crisis across the world.

World Bank President, Robert Zoellick, said this in a statement on the global food crisis released by the World Bank Group after a meeting in Berne, Switzerland of the United Nations Systems Chief Executives Board for Coordination.

Disclosing that the next few weeks were critical for addressing the food crisis, Zoellick said for two billion people, high food prices were now a matter of daily struggle, sacrifice and for too many, even survival.

He said the bank estimated that already, some 100 million people may have been pushed into poverty as a result of high prices over the last two years, stressing that this was not a natural disaster.

Zoellick, who stated that $750 million was needed to meet emergency needs, disclosed that roughly $475 million had been pledged.

“But pledges won’t feed hungry mouths, donors must put their money on the table and give World Food Programme maximum flexibility – with a minimum of earmarking – to target the most urgent needs” he said.