United Nations Radio

The World Food Programme is launching an emergency food operation to help more than half a million vulnerable people during the cold season in Kyrgyzstan.

The UN food agency says many of the people have felt the impact of high food prices and a fall in remittances they receive from their compatriots abroad.

According to WFP, as the economies of industrialized countries shrink, opportunities for employment in countries like Kyrgyzstan are falling.

WFP spokesperson Emilia Casella says one out of every five households in Kyrgyzstan is at a high nutritional and health risk.

"Their diet is extremely low in calories and the amounts of fats and oil that they have been consuming is going down. Prices have risen in Kyrgyzstan by 20 per cent. Fuel costs have gone up by a quarter. At the same time remittances to Kyrgyzstan have gone down because of the global financial crisis. People living outside the country are sending less money into the country."

Ms. Casella says the World Food Programme has launched this emergency food operation with a budget of more than $8 million to provide a ration of wheat, flour and oil.

WFP says during this year, Kyrgyzstan has also suffered two droughts, a sequence of locust infestations, hail storms and spring frost, all of which have caused serious damage to the country's agricultural sector.

Diane Bailey, United Nations.

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