United Nations Radio

The time for talk is over and action is urgently needed.

Jacques Diouf ,(photo) as he appealed to world leaders for US$30 billion a year to re-launch agriculture and avert future threats of conflicts over food.

In a statement to the Rome Summit called to defuse the current world food crisis, Dr Diouf noted that in 2006 the world spent US$1 200 billion on arms while food wasted in a single country could cost US$100 billion.

And he asks "against that backdrop, how can we explain to people of good sense and good faith that it is not possible to find US$30 billion a year to enable 862 million hungry people to enjoy the most fundamental of human rights: the right to food and thus the right to life?"

He says "the structural solution to the problem of food security in the world lies in increasing production and productivity in the low-income, food-deficit countries."

And he warns that the current world food crisis has already had "tragic political and social consequences in different countries" and could further "endanger world peace and security."

This is Donn Bobb reporting for United Nations Radio.

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