The World Bank yesterday called on the international community to mount a wide-ranging fight against hunger as skyrocketing food prices

critically threaten the world’s poor.

"We need a New Deal for Global Food Policy," World Bank president Robert Zoellick said in a speech to a Washington think tank ahead of next week's spring meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), reports AFP.

Meanwhile, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has predicted that the global rice production will increase by 12 million tonnes or 1.8 percent in 2008.

Referring to a 1930s US government initiative to tackle the problems of the Great Depression, Zoellick said that the new New Deal for Global Food Policy should start by helping those who are most immediately threatened with malnutrition and starvation.

Zoellick urged countries to provide the minimum 500 million dollars immediately sought by the World Food Program (WFP) to face the mounting food crisis.

The United States, European Union, Japan, and other developed countries "must act now to fill this gap — or many more people will suffer and starve,” he told the Center for Global Development.

The WFP, a United Nations agency, issued "an extraordinary emergency appeal" to governments on March 20 for money to close a widening funding gap created by soaring food and fuel prices. Without such immediate help, the WFP warned it may have to cut food rations.

Zoellick said that the World Bank "will almost double our own lending for agriculture in Africa, from 450 million to 800 million dollars."

He said the World Bank estimates 33 countries face potential social unrest because of the stark rises in food and energy prices.

"For these countries, where food comprises from half to three quarters of consumption, there is no margin for survival," he said in a speech ahead of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund's spring meetings on April 12-13 in Washington.

A surge in international prices of most cereals over the past two years has rippled through the price chain, driving up the retail prices of basic foods such as bread, meat and milk.

Zoellick noted the real price of rice last month had hit a 19-year high and that of wheat rose to a 28-yearhigh.

The spiraling prices have forced some developing countries to take emergency measures to guarantee their food stockpiles.

On Tuesday, amid a second day of violent protests against soaring prices in Abidjan, the Ivory Coast government temporarily lifted tariffs on imports of certain food essentials, including rice, whe.it flour, sugar, milk and fish.

FAO SAYS BICE OUTPUT TO

RISE

FAO has predicted that the global rice production will increase by 12 million tonnes in 2008, assuming normal weather conditions.

It will help ease the tight global supply situation that has pushed rice prices to a record high.

International rice prices rose by 20 percent in January, according to the FAO All Rice Price Index released in Rome on Wednesday.

In March, the price of high quality Thai rice rose to $546 a tonne, up by 13 percent from the previous month and 68 percent from the same period last year.

The FAO looks for sizeable output rises in all major Asian riceproducing countries, especially Bangladesh, China. India, Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines and Thailand where supply and demand are rather stretched now. Governments in these countries have already announced a series of incentives to raise production.

Farmland prices have increased in the USA and the US Department of Agriculture predicts prices to appreciate by 14.9 percent in 2008.

Production outlook is positive in Africa, where high prices may sustain a two percent growth, particularly in Egypt, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

Concerns about food import dependency in the region have led to a mobilisation of resources towards the rice sector. Production is expected to recover strongly in Latin America.

Rice production in the European Union is also expected to rise while it may contract in Japan.

A dismal production is forecast in Australia, considering low availability of water. A reduced crop is also expected in the USA, mainly due to a cut in area following competition for cultivation of more profitable crops.

Referring to the short-term volatility, FAO Senior Economist Concepcion Calpc said, “The international rice market is currently facing a difficult situation with demand outstripping supply and substantial price increase."

"Higher rice production in 2008

could reduce the pressure, but short-term volatility will probably continue, given the very limited supplies available from stocks. This implies that the market may react very strongly to any good or bad news about crops or policies," she added.

According to the latest FAO estimates, paddy production rose by one percent in 2007 to 650 million tonnes, which implies that it would be the second consecutive year where production growth would fall short of population growth, resulting in a drop of rice production on a per caput basis.

On rice trade, the FAO report said international trade in rice in 2008 is currently foreseen to reach 29.9 million tonnes, 1.1 million tonnes lower than the revised 2007 trade estimate.

The very tight supply situations that most exporting countries may face until the last quarter of the year and the associated restrictions on exports lay much behind the anticipated drop of rice trade in 2008.

Currently, China. India. Egypt. Vietnam, four among the traditional rice exporting countries, as well as Cambodia, have either imposed minimum export prices, export taxes or export quo-tas/bans.

Such moves are expected to reduce rice export from these countries. As for imports, the drop reflects prospects of lower shipments to Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Islamic Republic of Iran, as supply and demand situation in those countries may ease somewhat compared with last year.

Recent sudden price rises reflect the very limited supplies available for sale, especially given the wide range of restrictions imposed by key major exporting countries.

The tendency for further price rises, however, may diminish somewhat in the next few months, with the arrival of new rice harvests in Brazil or Uruguay and also in Bangladesh. India. Indonesia. Thailand and Vietnam. "So far. prospects regarding these crops are positive," Calpe added.