by Sangeeta Deogawanka

Created on: May 29, 2008   Last Updated: May 06, 2009

The April 17,2008, issue of The Economist mentions "The food crisis of 2008 may become a challenge to globalization." Indeed the prime consideration facing the policy makers at this juncture is not just averting a global catastrophe, but also feeding the poor and hungry at this moment of time.

In Pakistan, troops were deployed to guard trucks carrying wheat and flour. Protests erupted in Indonesia over soybean shortages and China has put in price controls. Food riots erupted in Uzbekistan and Yemen. Yet, corrective measures undertaken by rice-exporting nations like India and Vietnam to ensure their domestic demands, has further driven up prices on the world market. The increasing worldwide social unrest against escalating food prices, the recurring incidences of local food industries being wiped out by import surges induced by lowered tariff protection, the grossly scary picture of negative returns in in rice-producing economies, and consequential unemployment and poverty, are some of the prime issues facing the world today.

Both natural and man-made factors have triggered this food security crisis. Factors contributing have ranged from droughts, floods and climate variations on one hand to poor governance, foreign exchange shortages, depletion of strategic grain reserves, untimely analysis and response to food price trends on the other. Recurrence of such disasters and lack of management has led to this crisis build up. Ukraine, Bangladesh, India, Philippines and Southern Africa have faced repeated occurrence of droughts, floods and cyclones, which has gravely affected food production.

Maintaining the stability of rice prices is rule number one for Asia's leaders today. A shift in mindset and a pro-self reliant policy, as launched by President Gloria Arroyo of Philippines, aptly demonstrates how an effective multi-front crisis management campaign can arrest some of this problem. The issues surrounding this are multifarious. It's a foregone conclusion that removal of tariff barriers created a domino effect, setting off the current worldwide food crisis and poverty. Rich nations dumped heavily subsidized farm surplus in developing countries, thus destroying their agricultural base and undermining local food production. The case of rice is self-exemplary of how countries like Mexico and Philippines have transformed from a net food exporter to an importer. At micro-levels, stock-piling, relative inelasticity of food supply, historically low stock levels, speculative

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