United Nations Radio

Food security is of foremost concern and the challenge for many governments is to brig food at affordable prices to its citizens.

But according to President James Michel of Seychelles, the dramatic increase in grain prices has led to huge increases in basic food items such as bread, milk and meat.

He told the General Assembly that the hungry are getting hungrier and more desperate.

"The divide between rich and poor is widening by the day. We are faced with the looming threat of starvation on a global scale and with it, the prospect of violent upheavals. We can act to resolve the food crisis. In the first place the political commitment has to be there. Secondly, subsidies that the industrialized countries give to their farmers have to be removed. Thirdly, the industrialized countries should make available to the South much needed resources to improve our infrastructure."

President Michel appealed for the resources, the technology and the infrastructure to produce more food.

This is Donn Bobb reporting for United Nations Radio.

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