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Drought a factor in food aid shortage: UN

Source:  Copyright 2008, Australian
Date:  April 11, 2008
Byline:  Mark Dodd
Original URL

THE UN World Food Program has singled out the drought in Australia as a major factor behind its difficulty in finding food aid for 80 million of the world’s hungry. WFP Asia head Tony Banbury told The Australian yesterday that the drought had hit the nation’s grain harvest, not only driving up wheat prices but also drying up a traditional source of food for WFP.  “The drought in Australia, according to some scientists, could be evidence of the early impact of global warming and that’s one of the causes of higher food prices,” he said. “The weather events that have hurt production have obviously contributed to this (food shortage) problem. “In North Korea, there were floods in August and that has hurt the food supply … and led to greater needs for WFP.”

WFP is trying to help 28million people in Asia alone, but this does not include millions of others living on the subsistence line following a doubling of the price of wheat and rice in the past 12 months. Mr Banbury said the food crisis had caused a rise in social unrest in Bangladesh and Afghanistan. He said there was a risk “in a number of countries in Asia that the worsening food security situation could result in social and other disturbances”.

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