The Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda declared, the donor nations have pledged in excess of $11 billion to assuage the subsistence problems of the Asian poor that has developed due to the rising food prices. Kuroda said the bank seriously felt that it should act quickly to check subsequent problems that could reflect in the Asian population through the worsening food crisis scenario. It should be noted; the current global food crisis has crippled not only the Asian economic growth but also the most developed countries’ growth.
The factors, which aggravated the food crisis, are purportedly reckless usage of farmland for non-food crop cultivation. Besides, poor harvests and climate change are also been blamed for the growing problem. Though there was stupendous economic surge in last decade from Asia, the continent still houses two-third of world’s poor and 1.7 billion earn less than $2 per day. Counter measures by several countries including subsidized staples, pay hikes were able to solve the problems to a certain extent. Nevertheless, the ADB loans are in the form of soft loans to countries that are worst affected, and the loans would help those countries to provide succor in subsidizing staples.
In addition, the bank will make available extra $2 billion to fund infra-structural programs such as rural roads and irrigational projects to stimulate the farm output of 2008-09. Kuroda in its recent annual meet severely criticized Thailand’s design to form a group in line with OPEC (Organization of Petroleum-Exporting Countries). Last week Thailand’s Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej stated, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia had agreed in principle to form a rice price-fixing group that would be the Organisation of Rice Exporting Countries (OREC). A huge percentage of Asians consume rice as their staple food.
ADB has quickly reacted to solve the present food crises, keeping in mind the World Bank’s estimates which has termed the food crises have affected 2 billion people around the world and threatens to impoverish another 100 million people more. The three-fold increase in staples is not expected to stabilize very soon and as Kuroda has stated the “the cheap food era may be over”.